Mortal Intervention
by Heavenian
Summary: The Mist cannot hide everything, the gods cannot hide everything, not forever, for some things are bound to leak out. And when that happens, they catches the unwanted attention of mortals, the ones that believe they can control everything, the guardians of Earth, as they called themselves. But, some things are not to be meddled with, lines and mysteries not to be crossed.
1. The great aftermath

He trudged half-heartedly through the streets of New York rubbing his arms, moody and brooding, earning himself occasional glances from passerby. Percy wasn't exactly happy about his current predicament: free-time without Annabeth.

Sure! The giant war ended nicely, no one too loved died (unless you count Leo, who had apparently resurrected and was spotted recently in Texas),which was quite a miracle, considering the amount of action they went through. Most of the giants were killed (so was Khione, that betraying-D-grade goddess!), their essence separated and stored in several celestial bronze around the world. No one knew exactly where they are gone to, after being handed over to Athena. Gaea's human form was blown up into billions upon billions of godly particles, the Earth once more calmed, much like in the state of Uranus.

Both the Demi-gods camps survived, mostly, without great casualty due to the most helpful contributions of Nico and Reyna (not to mention Thanatos, blackmailed by Nico) Now, currently, the former was somewhere on errands for Hades and the latter back to Roman praetorship, joined by Jason and Piper, who volunteered.

Frank was taking Hazel around the world, currently in... somewhere (he can't keep track, okay?), and his piece of firewood safely out of the way, currently in The Pandora's Jar, in the middle of nowhere. Piper thought it was sweet of him, since he obviously took Hazels lack of knowledge about the mortal world to heart. By the gods, she probably doesn't know what the Empire State Building is.

Leo... well, he was... He hadn't made contact with them ever since his fiery fiasco. Nobody actually know what was going on. Though Percy had suspected that Piper know something that he doesn't she had avoided his questions quite expertly.

Thalia went back to service after Artemis, after some pretty tearful hugs. Percy tried not to join in the weepy group, but failed either way when Thalia caught him in her bone-crushing hugs. She was last seen talking with Hylla, the Queen of Amazons, walking away into the forest.

Annabeth was with Athena, doing gods know what. After a giant war and the unity of Greek and Rome, it really creates an unbelievable amount of paper work. And redesigning too, owing to the fact that after meeting the Romans and with the new portable gold mine ~ Hazel ~ Annabeth got so many new ideas and now she really have of the materials she would ever need. Though she did feel a bit guilty (thank you so much) about leaving Percy on his own, again. Not after they been through hell itself. But no one can ever turn down the gods, which had somewhat ruined Percy's plan for Roman College. "Sorry Percy," Annabeth had promised, "I will try to finish this quickly. Just don't die while I am gone, okay?" With his luck? Maybe.

Nico had been handed over to Will Solace, the Apollo medic and head councilor, who had taken to himself to stop Nico from melting in to a puddle of shadow. Strangely, Nico hadn't been protesting at all...? Piper had once again refused to answer his prodding questions.

And that leaves Percy, with nothing to do. Technically, he would had signed up to train newbies sword fighting, if only had Chiron not intervened, with all his: GET SOME REST business.

And tah da! Back to New York. He spent most of his unwanted 'holidays' with his mother and step-father in his apartment, goofing around the streets and slaying random unlucky monsters, coming home only for dinners. It was an alien feeling, freedom. Not having to an objective, a target (aka-run for your life), and frankly, Percy felt quite lost now, living a mortal's life.

Also, it was not until he went back to New York he know that it was recently assaulted by aliens. He, had managed to miss an entire inter-galaxy war. Really, nothing can surprises him anymore. Flying man in armor, big green monsters, aliens, Nordic aliens that looked like humans and proclaimed to be gods...

Why not?

He kept a hand in his pockets at all time, thumbing Riptide unconsciously. Even though the giant war was relatively a lot less messy than others, he still saw and went through plenty of disturbing things that could not be healthy for anyones' mental health. He still got nightmares, waking up at night panting and sweating. But he was comparatively lucky, next to what Nico went through...

No. No, don't think about it.

During the wars, Percy had made some pretty stunning discoveries about his powers, and it had been somewhat over-powered. Really, right until now, with plenty of spare time, he hadn't exactly take his water powers seriously.

And when he did, it was sweettttttt.

He had always known that he can control water, flood and storms and such, with all his under-water, storm generator and Moses experiences. Absolute power over any sea vessels, or ships, flying or not... And it was not until he somehow blocked a celestial bronze sword cut with water (a story for another time), he realizes the potential of his powers.

He had started with trying to summon his sword with water, and miraculously it worked, flying across the strawberry field straight into his hands. He was pretty exited about it, prancing around the entire day throwing his sword everywhere, but when he discovered that he cannot summon blue cola from the kitchen, his spirit dropped quite drastically.

He had spent hours meditating on the beach, cross-legged (compliments from Hypnos' Cabin), focusing on the water, the waves. He did this for weeks, you can always count him to be sitting there first thing in the morning. In waves he learned to be calm, calculated and keep his energy. It was somewhat of a miracle, that. Percy sitting still for hours? Not something you see every day.

From storms... well, lets just say his already over-powered sword skills went up another notch. And the phrase 'battering down like the hurricane" turned literal.

In a big disk of clear, pure water, he practiced forming things with water, commanding to take shape. At first, he could only raise a tendril of water, writhing like a snake in the air, causing Nico with his hell-fire and Jason with his air lassos to chuckle at his attempt. Though he thought of giving up, he never did. Maybe it was because of Nico and Jason, their very (annoying) existence to cause him to keep on doing the same thing.

Two months later, on a fine friday midnight, Jason was woke by a collapsing water pegasus.

Besides animating water, he tried to form static shapes out of water, such as a shield, armors, and bubble guns. He succeeded in it ( even the bubble gun ), but he stopped at daggers, He never attempted bows, knowing that his aim would still be as wretched as ever. No point testing the limits, or accidentally shooting anyone. His resulting creations are not pretty, but they can get the job done, proven multiple times. Though it was hard to hold its shape. Waters werebe not meant to be contained, keeping them the same for long periods of time would cause him headache and pain in his guts.

He had thought about trying to water travel like Nico can do Shadow travel, but at the end he chickened out. What if he accidentally melted himself and stayed stuck? That, is not a fate he would wish for himself.

Sighing, Percy went into a random eastern restaurant without even looking at the name to escape the summer heat. He nearly purred in content as he slumped down in a nearby seat, enjoying the cold air-conditioner.

He studied his menu, and to his surprise it was Arabian food. He had somewhat expected Indian, and was now feeling ridiculously guilty about being a stereotype. He glanced at the name - Shawarma Palace. Wraps and wraps and roasted meet. He wrinkled his nose slightly, and ordered a lemon tea.

He looked around the room, taking in the details while he waited. The restaurant had seemed like a pizza fast food shop, with all the papers taped and nailed on the wall, tiled floors and a counter. Several customers were sitting on nearby tables, eating quietly while some of the restaurant workers are chatting idly. Percy noted that some of the walls were freshly painted. That had sparked some suspicion in his mind, but when he remembered that the city had just went through a multi-alien invasion, it had snuffed out.

And, there is something queer going on.

There was a dude sitting near the counter, carrying a camera around, acting all jittery, his head kept cocking around nervously as if he is expecting something. His plate was empty. He was wearing glasses, a leather jacket that seen better days over a ruffled T-shirt. His clothes practically screamed NERD!, BULLIED!, HIGH SCHOOLER! and REPORTER!.

Not that Percy was black hearted. He knew what it was like to be the guy picked on, and felt some sympathy to this stranger.

Looking up, he saw that his lemon tea had arrived, giving a small smile to the blushing waitress, who then raced off. Girls. He can never understand them. He swiveled his straw and started drinking idly.

After a while, he started hearing a crowd murmuring. Looking up and shaking off his daydreaming, he saw a small crowd building in front of the shop, and that the reporter dude had perked up as well, his fingers practically twitching on his camera. Suddenly the door banged open, and a man in a stylish suit stumbled in. He got his sunglasses on, a very, very stylish hair cut and goatee beard.

The door banged shut by another big guy in front of the shop, herding the paparazzi away.

Silence.

Percy glanced at the restaurant workers, who did not at all look to surprised to see this scene happening. The reporter dude held his camera high and took a photo.

The apparently famous dude blinked at the sudden flash of light, and sighed, muttering, "God, paparazzi out, paparazzi in, paparazzi everywhere."

The reporter dude looked sheepish, yet he was having a quite triumphant smile, snapping a few more photos. The manager of Shawarma Palace (seriously, though, what is shawarma?) appeared behind the counter, calling out at the famous dude, "Same? Sir Stark?"

Oh. Now he remember. Tony Stark, the Iron Man, billionaire, weapon manufacture, savior of Manhattan, playboy, dude with the glowing chest, etc. No wonder he looked familiar. Annabeth had tried to contact him several times, but apparently failed. And now, Percy, out of nowhere accidentally met her idol. What are the odds?

Tony looked around, brushed off a nonexistent spot of dirt on his suit and sighed, "Of cause. But seriously though, you guys need a take-away service."

The manager gave a smile that could only be described as slimy, "Well, we've been trying to improve, but the thing is we do not have the funds to hire..."

Tony waved him off, "Just give me a number."

Percy was somewhat confounded by his easy going, if somewhat sassy behavior. Really. A billionaire, going to a restaurant in the slums of New York personally for a meal and waving off a project that might cause hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Percy quickly drained his lemon tea, and paid the waitress before leaving the shop behind. He went back on to the streets and pulled his hood over his head, disappearing inside the crowd without a sound.

~ TONY~

He struggled into his car with boxes of shawarma as Happy hit the gas, zooming the car out of the crowd. He rubbed his face tiredly. It was like only elven in the morning, and he already felt like he need to hibernate. The sun, the heat, the crowd... Some are good, but if in an over-dose its deadly.

Not fun at all.

He gaze at the shawarma at his lap, his appetite somewhat dropped. He started wondering if signing that contract was a good idea or not...

Stop it! Stop being negative. Be positive!

He struggled to stay silent and calm on the way back to the Stark tower.

Or more to say, the Avengers Tower. During the battle of New York, the tower was in the centre spotlight, which meant at the of the day it was a miracle that the building was still standing. Major renovations were made, which of corse was expected to be paid by him.

Not. Nope. Actually not really. He got alien friends. What are friends for if not for taking advantages of them?

In the renovation, he had saw fit to make the tower more of a fort than a luxury building. The roof top was armed with anti-air ballistics, all the sensors were and traps were upgraded, the glass windows were now all hammer proof (at least halfway decent, not Thor proof though) and Jarvis got an security update. Plus killing all the cameras and toys Shield sneaked into his home.

All done in the same day. Whew.

About after a twenty minutes car ride, he finally arrived back at his home. He stepped into his hall lugging his boxes of food behind him, his workers and shield agents alike nodded at him.

He stepped into the lift and pressed the 57th floor button, Jarvis suddenly said, _sir, Director Fury had called a meeting._

"Yeah? What about it?"

_He had assembled the Avengers, sir._

Tony froze, his mind quickly running through this piece of information. The Avengers? Now? What had happened that it would need the entire team to take care off? Unnervingly though, he could list a few. Alien attacks? HYDRA? Someone important dying?

The elevator's door opened with a pleasant _ding!, _admitting Tony into his own living room.

Only to found out it was occupied by every other member of the Avengers team but Thor: Barton surfing through his fridge, throwing bags of food unceremoniously onto his table, Dr. Banner lounging on his couch watching the News from his plasma screen, Rodger and Natasha regarding him with bored expressions.

And most of all, Director Fury himself standing right in the middle, saying dryly, "Good, you're here," as if it was Tony's fault.

"What's up?" Tony dumped his food onto the table without glancing at Director Fury, ignoring him as much as possible just to vex him, all the while forcing a smile on his face. Barton regarded this new piece of food on his table with interest.

"We had called this meeting today -" Director Fury began to say, but was interrupted by Tony's, "Cut it short. What did Shield mess up this time?", ignoring Fury's glare.

"Another unknown energy source," supplied Banner tiredly, not taking his eyes of the plasma screens.

"Correction: Multiple unknown energy sources," Natasha said, now groping inside her bag.

"Thank you, Agent Romanoff," said Fury, continuing, "Over the years, we had seen some pretty unexplainable things -"

"Nothing is unexplainable, Fury. It only depends if you are willing to find out," Tony quipped while moving the food away from a protesting Hawkseye, earning himself another glare.

"As I was saying, these unexplainable power surges had rocketed a couple of times. Once in New York, and the other one trailing from Long Island to Greece."

"What do you mean by power surges?" Tony asked, sitting down at his table, now interested, "Heat? Distortion?"

"Radiation, and heat too." Banner said, looking up from the TV for once.

Rodgers is now snoring on his particular piece of furniture.

"We had crossed reverenced these two Major power surges, and we found that it was almost identical, and it both occurred something weird happened. Are you familiar with the New York Blackout, Stark?" Natasha asked.

"That? No, not really, I was out of town that day."

"We had found that on that day, nearly half of New York's population had left for one reason or another, the rest had miraculously all fell asleep. Cars were found stuffed in the middle of the roads, some flattened, some other damaged in strange ways. And most of the statues had been removed from their pedestals and was found in pieces all over the city," Natasha recited from a piece of document she found in her bag.

"Okay, thats weird, might be aliens messing around. But -"

"Let me finish, would you?" Natasha snapped, causing Tony to back off sheepishly with his hands in the air, eyes widened dramatically. She began to read on, although with a slight frown, causing Barton to chuckle slightly, "The second time it was messier. By a lot. There was a trail of destruction all the way. Cars destroyed, buildings set on fire, collapsing car parks, flooding rivers, vandalization of many landmarks and such. It ended with an earth quake and a tsunami in Hawaii. "

"Now that is a bit more dramatic. Did some research, been there, done that. Concluded as aliens."

"Other than that, plenty of other instances traces of such power surges were found allover the world, albeit much smaller. And like wise, disasters always follows them. The smallest had been a flying trash can, the larger ones could be a random mountain set on fire, or a volcano eruption."

"Oh. Well, random things do happen. The point is - Wait, you are telling me that you've located one of these sources?"

"Yes, and that was the easy part. Now tell me, Stark, who and what was in that Shawarma Palace with you?"


	2. Whoops

Percy blundered on in the streets, quite lost. What should he do? A hero without a quest! Unheard of! He had half expected that the gods would suddenly come down and plop another prophecy on his head. Seriously, two prophecies in a life time, way better than what other demigods can achieve in a life time, rivaling Heracles' own legend, and the guy turned out to be psycho and homicidal.

That didn't exactly cheers him up.

Actually, it would be more likely if a sludge monster suddenly rise from the sewer and demands his head. That wasn't fun. Not at all.

His went over to central park, and sat down on a bench in front of the lake, closed his eyes and listened. He could hear the wind pushing through the leaves, the plants. He could smell the scent of flower in the air, dirt and water. He could feel the lake through the ground, its untold power and history. He smiled to himself and loose himself in memories. It was here, that he had the battle against the Titan Hyperion, where he had first successfully summoned a storm. Many lives were lost that day, dryads, satyrs, demigods alike, Well, at least they got what they came here for.

Suddenly, he remembered that in Tartarus he had seen Hyperion walking about before getting shredded by the ground (aka Tartarus). Then, in that case, is the tree still here? He bolted from the bench without warning, scattering a few doves before stopping in front of the maple tree. It was as large and thick as it ever was. The bark was healthy, the leaves full, probably because it absorbed the essence of a titan, the Ichor. And it sort of stood out like a sore thumb, standing in the middle of the road like that. But well, at least no one tried to chop it down. That unlucky mortal might simply get shot with titanly light before bursting into flames, dying a terrible death.

He was glad that the area had been reclaimed quite nicely, tree were being watered and care for, guards that were paid were actually patrolling, warding off against all those that might try to litter in the wild with a bat.

Maybe the guards _are satyrs, _you'll never know. Especially those waving clubs around, Hedge style.

Wait. Something's wrong. Maybe its because of the water nearby, he could sense something distinctively wrong. He was tempted to immediately snap his head around to look for the source of trouble, but experience had taught him that doing so is equivalent of waving a huge bloody red flag shouting "COME AND GET SOME!"

So instead, he slowly withdrew from the tree, and started down a brisk jog down the side of the lake. Using his mind, he called out to the water spirits in the water, "_Anyone?"_

The lake immediately replied, _"Yo? What can we help you with?"_

_ "Can you do me a favor? See if anyone dodgy is watching me."_

_ "Sure can do."_

Talking to the minor (really minor, though he wasn't about to say it out loud) water gods telepathically had been a trick Percy had been mastering ever since the business with Tiber. He found out that every lake, river or reservoir out there got a least one god living in it. This knowledge had proved quite useful when he found out that all of them owe allegiance to Poseidon, especially when in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by monsters of every kind. Percy had particularly liked this lake. It reminds him of Blackjack.

"_Yo! No one dodgy around. No one following around, no one staring like an idiot..."_

_ "Anyone interesting around?" _He thought.

_ "Well, there is this couple snoggin-" the voice continued._

_ "Fast forward. Skip that, don't go for details please."_

_ "Okay okay! Calm down... Other than the couple, there was this mortal russian woman lugging a bag about, pointing everywhere with a... what do you call that gadget, camera? Besides her, no one funny or anything."_

_ "Thats... enlightening,"_

_ "I know, right? "_With that, the voice melted away.

Oh boy.

Struggling to remain calm and collected, Percy strolled leisurely to the exit of the park, ignoring the temptation of looking around. Trouble is coming.

With all his demigod's instinct, he was sure that trouble was coming in fast and very, very deadly.

~NATASHA~

She braved a glance at the boy that was obviously aware of her presence. Silently, she acted an image of a first-time traveler, taking photos of thing of interest. The boy that she was spying on appeared to be the "Energy Spike" that she was ordered to track. He doesn't look all that impressive: a sixteen-or-so highschooler, dressed in shabby jeans and an orange T-shirt, complete with a blue hooded jacket. His hair was black, his body quite lean and his expression looked like he is constipating.

All in one, Natasha was _not _reassured. She had looked into the boy's file, all the information that Shield can find about him. His name is Percy Jackson. Went missing at twelve, apparently kidnapped but managed to escape with a gun show-down, while he was hunted by the polices and managed to show up everywhere. His original father was missing at birth, and his mother, Sally Jackson also went missing for a short period of time at twelve, miraculously appearing back at the flat less than two weeks later. His step-father, Gabe Ugliano had said that the boy was on drugs, and shortly after Percy escaped and returned, he disappeared. That was when he was twelve, the first of the series he was about in initiate

Over the next few years (or the rest of his life), he had been in similar fashions appearing across the entire western continents. In America, in Quebec, in Alaska, in Greece and Rome - generally you can find him anywhere. Anywhere that a power surge can be found.

It had greatly shocked and surprised everyone that he managed to elude Shield for so long without even trying. With deeper researches, they had found that there are many more of such instances across the globe, smaller power surges coming with it.

For a long time, Natasha hadn't been nervous. Actually, the last time that she was ever remotely near anxious was when Barton to brain-wiped. Right now, she was sweating quite profusely. Something just seemed off, something not quite right, and this feeling was quite unpleasant. She had learned to obey her instincts over the long hard years, and they are now telling her to "Turn away walking as fast ass you can".

What had bothered her even more is that how a boy can hold such power, on him, with him or by him. Where was the energy signal coming from; the boy, something he had on his body, or a particular item? Is he a terrorist? Is he working for anyone? What is his motive? Natasha hate not having information, and usually her missions include finding them out. Even though Barton was jumping across the rooftops like an acrobat just to cover her, she still can't shake that sinking feeling.

Shaking herself out of her trance, Natasha looked back at her target, who was now jogging to the entrance, going to disappear from sight soon if she doesn't follow soon. Cursing slightly, she sped up her foot steps, walking quite briskly toward the exit.

She spoke softly to her hidden listening device, "Target is leaving Central Park. No hostile actions observed."

"Ditto to that," Barton said.

Over the com, Stark suddenly butted in, obviously hacking the com of the microphones again, "Not hostile? Trouble follows this kid, I swear it. Every he goes - BOOM! A random building catches on fire or blow up."

"What do we do with him?" Natasha asked, ignoring Tony (again), waiting for Director Fury's answer rather nervously.

After a moment, he finally replied with a weary voice, "Continue to follow him and observe; if you manage to get him alone, talk to him and bring him in."

After a bit of considering, he said, "And also, Tony, you are in. Bring your suit."

~PERCY~

He took a shuddering deep breath, struggling to stay calm. All his senses were tingling, screaming "GET OUT OF HERE!" at him. He was currently in the streets again, amidst oblivious mortals, walking by. He need to leave, now. That women who was following him, is mortal. He was completely sure of it, the lake god had said so.

This is potentially disastrous. He should have know the mist wouldn't hide everything. Even if the monster-slaying part was hidden, he would still sure to draw unwanted attention with his trek across the globe, all the trouble in the news.

And now the mortals are looking for him, and they seriously mean business. He glanced at the reflective window opposite to the road, and sure enough, the woman he saw earlier was still around, her attention on him. On the roof, he could sense another being. Someone that use ranged attacks? Tactical support?

Really, now what? It would be impossible to escape the city now.

That leaves only one choice: To confront his pursuers.

He looked around, trying to locate a suitable place for confrontation - Jackpot! He found a darkened alley, with a roof made of stairs and stacked cardboard paper, yet wide enough for his weapons to be used to their max potential. And further more, there is an open sewer lid that he can escape to, with all their watery support at his back.

Without a second thought, he waltzed into the alleys, retreated in deep and waited behind a stairs. He silently counted, one, two, three...

_ Pat Pat Pat_ The sound of the mortal's footsteps were prominent.

Five, six, seven...

Percy closed his eyes, his senses sharp. He focused on the air, the surrounding, accessing to all his sensory organs, trying to paint a picture of the of the world around. While so, he gave a silent prayer to Hermes for his sneaking blessing upon him. _Just let me get out of this mess. I would even try to train your kids!_

_Pat Pat Pat..._

He can feel the minuscular vibration on the damp concrete floor, the echoes of footsteps reverberating like an insect on a spider's web. One peculiar set stopped right on the entrance, half in half out. The figure was probably standing now at the entrance, staring at the dirty, wet alley, wondering wether to enter or not. Well, the moment of truth

The footsteps stepped out of the alley.

Percy had almost smiled in relief, yet he didn't allow himself to. This one had been too close, for a mortal to try and discover his kind, and more importantly, him. This is positively disastrous.

Wait.

Percy slipped back into focus mode, and felt another tiny tug at his web of water. Heavy, but it vibrated so softly it almost fooled him. Almost, but not quite. A detached portion of his ADHD mind congratulating himself in able to remember all those old 101 rules of hero-ing ~ don't relax just yet ~ feeling absurdly proud of himself for a moment before snapping back to attention.

Ohhh great. Now what? Breaking out is a very viable option, yes... but just the part that he must not reveal himself to mortal sort of proved to be a chink in his plans. Distraction? A random runaway horse down the highway? Possible, if he try to slip away at the same time, out of the alley or into the sewers. Percy is _not _fond of sewers. Wet is good, yes, smelly and disgusting, no. Leave him out of it, with its usual infestation of slug monsters, giant rats and the a croc-man swaging down the draining pipes. A very cheerful place. He cursed himself for choosing a close ended alley for hiding. It was an extremely stupid decision.

"I know you are in there," a feminine voice rang out, "Stand out and no one would need to be hurt."

Ahh... Just as well. Yolo.

Breathing deeply, he rose and stepped out of his hiding place, facing his peruser. Just as he had predicted, she was the twenty-something Russian woman that he had seen waltzing around in the Central Park. She was extremely pretty, with a model's dream body built, like an upgraded gymnast. She was dressed in casual clothes, jeans, sweater, a small flimsy red jacket that matches her fiery hair perfectly, looking all in the world like a movie star that decided to take a stroll in a dirty alley. Her appearance looked harmless enough, and Percy is sure that she is a mortal, judging from her obliviousness to his monster-away reputation or her carefully sculpted words.

And lastly, her eyes. It reveals many things.

This woman is definitely a seasoned warrior, battle hardened, Percy can see that much from her stance. He can see her eyes calculating him, and that she is also seeing Percy reading her, a trait for anyone with many skirmishes. It was a haunted pair of eyes that had seen many things that no mortals should see, a pair of eyes that he sees whenever he looks into a mirror.

Shaking himself out of his trance, Percy forced a grin and said, "Well now, you caught me. May I know who had the honor of trying to kill me this time?"

Percy caught a very brief flash of shock in her eyes before it harden again, "Natasha Romanoff, at your service," she said fluently, "And no, no one is trying to kill you here."

"Capture then? Great. This again," Percy sighed to himself.

"We would prefer not to use the word 'capture', 'bringing in' or 'request' might be a better word for it," Natasha said, crossing her arms.

"And it doesn't matter which way I see it, right?"

"Correct. All that varies is that if someone needs to get hurt or not," she supplied, cocking her head, "Will you come with me peacefully, then?"

Percy took a moment to comprehend this, before asking, "Where are we going, and who is responsible for this... 'request'?"

"Classified."

Human, government, top secret stuffs. Go figure.

Natasha must have noticed his expression, because she immediately continued, "Don't take this the wrong way. We don't know who you are, and what you can do. We can't simply let you know what we are before you agree to come with me."

Wait. What he can do? Percy's eyes narrowed, "What do you mean by what 'I can do'? How did you find me?"

Natasha almost sighed exasperatedly, "That was the easy part. You see, you've been appearing all over the world without a flight record, causing wanton destruction in your wake on camera. Its not that hard to locate you, Percy Jackson."

So much for the Mist covering everything. Well, actually, it makes sense. If the Mist covers everything, how in the name of the Gods are there mythologies? Somethings are bound to leak out. He can't go with the woman. That would reveal his demigod-status, and he had absolutely no idea what to do. How will the Mist react? What will happen if he manage to break out? Dang it. Percy made a silent prayer to Hecate.

"Wow. Spy organization. Very very cliche."

The woman allowed herself a small smile, "Might be, But back to topic: are you going to come in or not?"

Percy hesitated slightly, unsure how to proceed. Should he 'come in'? If so, he risk being captured, locked in lab suffering crazy experiments, and occurring the wrath of the gods. So, no. Leave him out of mortal issues.

If he decides to break out... He will get mauled by mortals, might accidentally reveal the existence of Demigods, occurring the wrath of the gods, too.

No, not that too. Both are bad, with a capital B. Gods, how will Annabeth react in such a scenario? Its definitely a first in their demigod life - ganged on by mortals.

_Do not escape! Do not run!_

Percy's sense suddenly went full blaring at this mysterious voice in his mind, and hissed back mentally, _who's that? _Whispering in your brain is a decidedly unusual business, is almost alway a sign of trouble, especially if its a creepy voice. Where did the voice come from? With demon, this time?

_Goddess of the Mist, Hecate. I answer your plea._

Now thats a surprise. A Goddess a answering that quickly? Or even bothering to answer at all? _Well hello, Hecate! Thanks for deigning to notice me._

_ Glad you know. Now obey my instructions and you might survive. First, stop staring at the mortal like an idiot and answer her question!_

Suddenly, Percy realized that he had been staring unwittingly at empty space for several second, getting himself a strange look from the female agent. He blinked a few times to focus himself, replying with a small, wary smile, "Well, I don't have a choice, do I?"


	3. Welcome aboard

Tony was somewhat unnerved that a boy he had randomly met in a shop turned out to be this super dangerous being that should be able to kill him without much effort, with suit on or not. And now, this very kid had agreed to come to _his _tower without protest, the current center command point of SHIELD.

No, no no. Tony does not trust him. Definitely not.

Tony hissed into his micro phone, "Fury?"

And came the calm, annoyingly collected response, "Yes Stark?"

"Please do not bring him to the tower. Bad idea mate, it will be _Loki Accident _all over again-"

"Stark."

Tony groaned slightly at Fury's harsh and unbending tone, mentally face-palming himself again, saying, "If he breaks my tower, you pay for it, literal."

Fury didn't even deign to answer, which was even more annoying than him having Tony to suit up for no reason at all.

Tony leapt off the building he was crouching on, firing the thrusters on full, speeding him across the Manhattan skyline, back to his precious tower. Oh boy, this won't end well. It is a serious mistake. He believes that all the others feel as agitated as he is, just as worried, but only managing to hide it better, not daring to stand up and make a point.

Wimps, they are.

Wait. That came out wrong.

After a few moments of self-complaining thoughts, he realized that he had arrived back home. He landed nimbly on the balcony platform and started walking down the length of it. As he did so, metal arms along the railing unfurled and started stripping off the armor pieces, storing them away in hidden conveyers under the floor plating. He was quite proud of that particular installment, as it is both practical and convenient. Not to mention it is useful for showing-offs and boasting, an added bonus.

Upon entering the building, a voice rang out to greet him: _"welcome back, sir"_

"Jarvis? Fill me up to speed," said Tony, going for the bar, pouring himself a drink.

_"Miss Romanoff and Percy Jackson are arriving. They are now entering the front door, undergoing weapons checking and verification."_

Tony absentmindedly flicked open his plasma screens, relaying the security cameras. Sure enough, the boy was being paraded through the lobby, with at least twenty guns pointing at his back, emptying his pockets and such.

Tony, flipped through the other boring scenes, until he came across some thing unusual, "Jarvis, why is there a double-rotor SHIELD Quinjet on my roof?"

_"That would be Percy Jackson and Miss Romanoff's transport to the Helicarrier."_

Tony almost spurted out his mouthful of Burgundy out onto his carpet when he heard this news, before stuttering out, "Wait, excuse me? You're saying that Percy Jackson is going to the Helicarrier _before _being checked?"

_"Yes, that is correct. The rest of the Avengers team is at the Helicarrier, too."_

Feeling slightly faint, Tony slumped in a nearby chair, gazing warily at the screen: Percy Jackson and Natasha making up their way at the elevators, surrounded by a legion of agents.

Wether this is a terrible mistake, Tony guess that they will soon know.

~PERCY~

Percy whistled slightly at the obvious display of technological advancement, admiring the designs despite his terrible disinterest in craftsmanship. Leo ( or any of the Cabin 9 ) and Annabeth would feel at home here. Once upon a time Percy was just a simple, brainless twelve years old bent on not getting expelled ( wait, actually it hadn't changed much ), but now, seeing the world as it is, filled with all these strange wonders, he can't help but to wonder just how many secrets, how many _marvels_ it can hold.

He had felt somewhat molested after he finally got past the agents.

The elevator door opened with a pleasant _ding!, _revealing the roof top, the sunlight glaring down making Percy to shield his eyes. When he recovered, he noticed the thing that dominates the helicopter pad.

Uh oh.

_Hecate, you there? _Percy thought furiously.

The Goddess responded immediately, _Never gone. If you are worrying about the flying contraption, have no fear. I had spoken with Zeus._

_ Well, thats a relief, _Percy followed the agent onto the fancy looking jet-thing that is worthy for a son of Hephaestus, cringing slightly at the_ touch_ of a _flying _machine, but luckily on one noticed. Hopefully. _Hecate, does every one I know knows of this misadventure? _

_ Yes, they all do. The Gods, the demigods, you parents, _Hecate replied, _they all have to know. Isis and Hermes is working overtime for this purpose alone._

_ Wow, I am honored, _Percy thought as the all the engine starts to light up, the humming noise giving Percy a miniature heart attack, causing him to grip the chair hardly without realizing so.

_Hmm, _Hecate snorted haughtily, _enjoy your trip, Jackson. Things will get even more complicated than it already is._

Uh oh. And the jet-thing achieved lift off, making Percy flinch.

"You've stayed silent," Natasha noted, fumbling with the ventilation, looking at him from a corner of her eyes.

Percy snapped his head up, realizing that he had been staring off into space, eyes unfocused and twitching. That probably hadn't gone unnoticed. Percy attempted to grin, failing somewhat, "Nothing... Just not too fond of heights."

Natasha nodded slightly before sitting down again, crossing her legs before fiddling with a laptop that she had produced from her bag, which she acquired from a man in tuxedo back in the Stark Tower.

Percy risked a glance outside the window, and immediately regretted it. They are now at least a hundred meters higher than the Empire State Building, skimming across the city and flying on water now, passing the Statue of Liberty. For a helicopter, it was remarkably fast and silent, though Percy guess it would be necessary if you are working for _spies, _and it wouldn't come as a surprise if the thing is heavily armed.

"So, where are we going?" Percy asked, attempting to take his mind off the fact that they are so high up.

Natasha looked up from her laptop, answered briefly, "SHIELD's headquarters."

"Wow, that's enlightening," Percy remarked sarcastically, drumming his fingers on the seat handles.

"Glad you thought so."

"Really, tell me."

"You will know soon enough."

"Oh, come on!" Percy complained, fidgeting, "Or can you at least tell me what you are going to do with me?"

Natasha paused for a while, before replying, "SHIELD is going to record you down, make sure you are not a threat, how you contribute the world, before releasing you back to what ever world you came from if you pass the threat test."

"Just that?"

"Just that."

"Really? I sort of expected more."

"We had plenty of experiences like this. Aliens, the Hulk, Iron Man, genetics... We got experiences."

"Why do I have a bad feeling about this?"

"Well, other than just 'that'. SHIELD would also have many questions for you."

"Such as?"

"Where do you come from? What is your power? What are you doing with it? Where did you get it? These questions. Might be better if you prepare yourself for them."

Oh, yeah, interrogation. Quite expected, though Percy simply had no idea what to say or answer. Should he tell the truth? That would be a major violation of his world's secrecy, and Percy is not sure wether he is _allowed _to say anything. Once again, the fate of the world lies within his mouth, which is a very, very bad idea.

He hated that, and he blamed Hecate and Hermes for it. He remembered what Hermes had said after the Titan war on Olympia: "_It's my job to monitor what the mortals are saying, if necessary, help them make sense of what's happened. I'll reassure them. Trust me, they will put this down as a freak earth quake or a solar flare..."_

Colossus failure, Hermes, and you too, Hecate.

_Just tell me, how did you manage to let loose such important news? _Percy thought somewhat savagely.

The Goddess replied glumly, _The Mist cannot hide everything. The bigger the impact demigods cause in the mortal world, the harder it is to cover everything. Cameras, global mind wipes, restoring the battlefields and hectic weathers, planting false memories and technologies clearing — so many variables. Its impossible to keep such big events hidden, boy. Now focus, you have only a quarter of an hour till you arrive._

Fifteen minutes? Only? Percy looked out the window, and was surprised that they are already in the middle of nowhere, only endless sea till the end of sight, New York had already disappeared well beyond the horizon. Percy briefly checked their coordinates — and found out that jet-thing was moving faster than sound, after seeing all these amazing pieces of technology, Percy had felt rather outdated, having to swing a sword about to decapitate monsters and undead alike.

Oh, how did he even get here?

~BRUCE~

Back in the Helicarrier, Bruce was sitting rather leisurely in his laboratory, fingers wiping through plasma screens as he calmly read the files concerning young Percy Jackson.

The young man was an enigma, very hidden, very troublesome. Just his school reports can tell everyone in the room what kind of personality he got, blowing up schools, breaking aquarium tanks, along with the perfect mix of ADHD and dyslexia. Wonderful trouble concoction.

He had attended school, alright, and commendably he had managed to stay in the same school for several years in one go, something that he had never managed before. Mysteriously, every summer and holiday he would disappear off the face of earth, and show up somewhere miles away.

It was amusing reading the files. It reminded Bruce of himself.

But the reason he was reading wasn't for these. He was searching for any link that might hold a clue to whatever supernatural past the kid got. Where did get his power radiation from? How did he disappear? Most of all - is he a threat? So far, he got close to zero results, having not a single clue of what the boy is capable of.

Judging by his willingness to come abroad without a fuss, he might be harmless. But then, you never know, it can be Loki all over again, quoting Stark. He understands his concern, is lack of trust and faith. Finding another super being on earth is not everyday news, portentously dangerous ones are even more worth worrying, something that he would very much like to avoid.

He glanced out the window, setting down his files, looking at the slowly setting sun. What a turn his life had been, a doctor, a gamma doctor, a gamma monster, a gamma hero, a SHIELD gamma monster hero. Really, he thinks that nothing can surprise him anymore.

Suddenly a knock on his door got his attention, causing him to look up, noticing the rather nervous agent in classic suit-and-tie fidgeting by the doorframe. Stating simply, Bruce asked, "Yes?"

"You are needed in the Interrogation Hall," the agent said, before hastily adding "Sir." to the end of his sentence.

Bruce smiled sadly at this, knowing the rightful fear of him would never go away. He stood up and stretched, said, "Shouldn't keep the director waiting, can we?"

The agent nodded slightly and walked off, heading to whatever work that was required of him.

So, this is it, then. Time to meet the kid. Interrogation Hall, Bruce mused, a fancy name for an ugly cage with a terrible purpose. SHIELD got a talent for disguising horrible things with lovely words.

Bruce picked up his jacket and walked out of the room, shrugging the clothing on. The corridor outside his room is currently deserted, a fact that he was happy of, though he had no doubt about all those hidden cameras everywhere. The spies spy on their own spies, an irony that didn't escape him, nor everyone else, it seems.

The Interrogation Hall is the very cage that Thor had fallen into earth, held over open air at the bottom of the Helicarrier. He suspect everyone is unhappy about this. Bad memories: Loki, Coulson, Thor falling, its original purpose of encaging Bruce himself, the distrust of SHIELD.

He was the last of all the avengers in the room. Fury was hovering by the side of his controller, Natasha standing on the side with her arms crossed. Barton clint was probably up there somewhere among the metal beams, watching. Captain America himself is talking slowly with Tony, a fact that amazes Bruce to no end. They had came a long way, the pair of them. A narcissistic genius and a near zealot-like soldier that questions non, nemesis less then a year ago, now the best of buds.

And the centre of attention - the boy sitting in a chair at the centre of the cage, a bored look on his face. Even though Bruce had read the files, he was surprised by his obvious youth, or the fact that he looked... unimpressive. A teenage boy that looked better suited in a detention room than a _Interrogation Hall._

"Now, it looks like we are all here," Fury said, catchings everyone's attention with his rather loud voice, "we can begin."

"Wait, where is Thor?" Bruce asked, confused.

"We can't contact him so we had no idea," Natasha answered his question, "He is probably dealing with Loki."

Yeah, right.

Fury approached the cage, asked, "Well, shall we begin then?"

The boy inside the cage suddenly stood up, causing everyone here to unconsciously reach for their weapons. He stretched and yawned delinquently, causing Tony to chuckle, before saying, "Ask what you will, director."

"Very well. As you should know, every word here is recorded and stored for future uses, for or against you. Lets start with the simple ones: is your name Percy Jackson?"

"Yes. Why?"

Fury ignored his rebuttal, and continued on onto his next question, "Are you human, if so where are you from and when are you born?"

"Human. Duh. New-Yorker, seventeen years of age, at your service. Really, thats what you would ask? I thought you would have done some background research first."

Once again, Fury ignored him. Bruce was deeply reminded of the relationship between Tony and Fury. This boy would have gotten along fine with the narcissistic genius, if he was proved to be friendly...

Bruce snapped back to reality when Fury asked, "What are you?"

The boy pondered upon that question for while, before saying, "Demigod."

"Demigod?"

"Yeah, that is what I call myself."

Fury is evidentially unhappy with that answer, but didn't pursue down that road. Instead he asked, "Are you alone?"

"Am I alone? Yes, I believe I am not married."

Fury gritted his teeth, a vein pulsed on his forehead, Tony sniggered on his chair, giving the boy thumbs-ups, and bursted laughing when Percy finished with, "I have a girlfriend though, so don't even think about it."

Fury swallowed his anger, asking in a low, dangerous voice, "Are the more of your kind?"

Percy paused for a moment there, answering later, "Yes."

That answer gave everyone pause, worried glances flying through the air. This is bad news, more of _him, _unknown powerful teenagers in the world, causing god-knows-what mischief.

The boy must have noticed their expressions, for he putted up a grin and said, "don't worry, I'm the best of them all. If I am Thor, the rest would be other Asgardians soldiers."

That wasn't all that reassuring.

"Do you have powers?"

"I can get an F in every test," the boy said, causing Tony to snort, while Steve frowned.

"Answer cooperatively, would you?"

"Can I leave this "cage"? Its getting stuffy in here," Percy waltzed around the cage, rapping on the glass.

Fury snapped, "Enough, mister Jackson! If you do not cooperate, or you cross that line again, I am afraid I would have to drop you."

"Yeah, through the air and into the sea," Percy stated, unimpressed.

"That is how it works, Ant, boot."

"Do I looked impressed?"

Fury almost shook with... well, fury. He took a few deep breaths, before saying slowly, "We will come back twelve hours later. I sincerely hope you would be cooperative then." He motioned for every to leave the room, Natasha and Steve went without question, though Tony did gave him a pitying glance. Bruce didn't move.

Percy said, arm crossed and said in a bored tone, "You do realize that you can't keep me in, do you?"

Fury repeated what he had said to Loki not so long ago, "If you so much as scratch that glass, the steel trap drops." He then proceeded to drag Bruce out of the room, leaving Percy to himself, shutting off the lights, all but the cage's.

~PERCY~

_So, how did that go? _Percy thought mentally, slumping down on his chair, wiping the sweat on his forehead away.

_Well enough, with my advices, _Hecate replied grudgingly, _Now, we need you to give them a demonstration._

_ Demonstration? _Percy thought back tiredly.

_Approach Fury, alone. Give him an example of your power, and make sure it stays private._

_ Don't know if you realize this, but I sort of trapped in here, _Percy said.

_Extraction is coming soon._

_ Extraction? _Percy thought back tiredly.

And then he noticed the thickening of the shadows, almost bubbling, a feeling of fatigue oozing from the air.

"You can never keep yourself out of trouble, can you Percy?" an all too familiar voice said from the darkness.

"Sure not," Percy grinned.

* * *

><p><strong>Yay first author's note!<strong>

**Okay. To anyone that made it through my... story:**

**Updates are going to be slow, like _really _slow. I am not a fast writer and I am constantly busy, so please be patient with me! THX for reading.**


	4. Now what?

Fury rubbed his face tiredly as he sat in his office-slash-room, putting down his files. It was night already, the moon is up, shining balefully down on the Helicarrier, unobstructed by the clouds which are in fact under them. The Helicarrier had undergone drastic motivations after the Battle for New York, courtesy of Stark, now always prepared for attacks, protected by a fool-proof anagram.

The room Fury was in technically does't exist, no one actually knew of its existence, to find it would literally need to take the Helicarrier down piece by piece. It was a good thing, Fury supposed. Better security, less of a chance of being assassinated.

The mysterious boy Percy Jackson both troubles him and madden him. So far, not a single soul had any idea of what he is capable of, and he wasn't making it easy for them to do their jobs. His mother and step-father are living oblivious lives, not knowing the curious fate that had befallen to their child, of what he might be capable of...

Fury letted out a sigh, all of a sudden feeling as if he is thousands of years old. With a shock, he realized that he is tired of being what he is: an inhumane spy working only for the greater good, his humanity slowly slipping away to make room for duty, his sanity dripping and withering. All his predecessors had either gone mad or ended themselves, and Fury knew that he is only next in line for the same fate. Who can be his successor? It is a question he had asked himself many times.

During his 'reign', the world hadn't exactly prospered, though he had admittedly rebuffed many world domination attempts, but not without casualties. He had seen plenty of unmentionables, acts of both great kindness and cruelty, some handed by himself. It is a fact that he is not proud of, but he knew that it was necessary. If not him, who would be willing to shove their hand in the mud to rebuild?

Once upon a time, he might had been exhilarated to be the Director, the highest possible place one can achieve, something that he had paid dearly to acquire. But now, it started to get a bit distasteful, bitter and unwanted. He immediately shook himself of the mood, knowing perfectly that it is such thoughts that will sooner or later cost his life. So far, he hadn't started hearing voices in his mind, or started getting overly paranoid (no, he got charming personality from day one on), but he knows...

His end is close, his sanity isn't going to last much longer.

~PERCY~

Shadow traveling is awesome. The wind tunnel face-peeling wind was exhilarating, it was going on a halloween roller coaster, dark, cold and very, very fast with whispery noises.

How can anyone not like that? Even though it has a side effect of tiring the initiator, or melting them both into shadows, it seemed well worth it. What puzzled him is that how Nico came back from being non-existent, which was supposed to be incurable.

Nico had answered, "Apollo healing magic, god of light casts big shadows," as if that answered anything at all.

Now that it was midnight, though the corridors are filled with night officers, the mortal heroes are now resting. That includes Fury, hopefully.

Popping out of darkness, his pupil contracting wildly to adjust to minor light inside the room. He looked around the room: small functional, the walls almost consisted entirely of monitors, a bed, a desk with a complex-looking computer, drawers and files everywhere, and in the corner was the door.

Right on the chair in front of the desk, was Fury himself, with his back to Percy.

Percy hesitated slightly, looking at Nico for guidance. He shrugged back at him, before gesturing silently, _go on._

Percy cleared his throat, before saying in a clear loud voice, "Director Fury."

The effect was explosive. If Percy thought that Fury was trigger happy, this would say he is nuclear.

Fury immediately reached for his gun, rolling out of his chair swiftly. When he landed in a crouch, he fired a series of shot at his uninvited guests.

If weren't for their demigod instincts and training, Percy and Nico would have long became sponges in a fraction of a second. While Percy threw himself out of the way, Nico chose to intercept the bullets midair with shadowy tendrils that burst from his own shadow, and in the same motion he swirl the tendrils around back at Fury, knocking him off his feet, disarming him and pinning him to the wall with shocked eyes.

The fight lasted less than three-seconds. Fury made his move, and as good as it was, it failed.

Percy stood up carefully, messaging his bruised shoulder he got when throwing himself at the ground. He gave a thankful nod to Nico before turning his focus back to Fury, and repeated again, "Director Fury."

The other man gave him a glare.

"This went off the wrong way, didn't it?" Percy muttered, causing Nico to snort, before continuing, "We came here to hopefully meet you alone, without the others. It worked, mostly at least."

"If you want to torture me for information, you might as well forget about it," Fury spat back.

"No! Of corse not!" Percy stuttered back, somewhat shocked at the other man's toxic tone, "We are here to give you a warning, then we will let you go."

"At what price?"

Nico sighed, exasperated at Percy uselessness at speaking, "Listen, Fury. The message is this simple, 'Leave us alone, stop looking into us, or we might have to take actions against Earth's Heroes.' Get it?"

Fury glared at back at the boys tone, and suddenly found that his eyes are equally hard and unbending as his was, cold and haunted. For a moment, he maintained defiance, but suddenly, he felt pure dread entering his heart, fear cruising through him.

"Do you understanding?" Nico repeated darkly.

The feeling lasted only a fraction of a second, but it was enough. Meekly and ashamed, he bowed his head and said quietly, "I understand."

Nico smirked victoriously, saying, "That wasn't so had, wasn't it?" Percy suspected that it was both pointed at Fury and him. Nico released his grip on the shadows, which faded away like smoke, letting Fury slumped against the wall.

Percy waved his hand about helplessly, before saying, "We are sorry it had to be this way. Remember the points though, we are watching."

At that, he accepted Nico's waiting hand and stepped into the shadows once more, the cold embracing him.

~LEO~

Leo buried his face in Calypso's soft hair, breathing in her scent, kissing her on the cheek with a grin. The said goddess blushed slightly, pushing-not-pushing Leo away, whispering franticly, "Stop it repair boy, people are watching!"

"What? Come on, that is what boyfriends and girlfriends do. Its very normal," Leo said, smirking slightly

"Still-"

"Sunshine, everything is fine. Relax!" Leo tutted slightly, grasping her hand and laying them on the table top. They are currently in New York, sitting side by side in a random restaurant they had stopped for dinner, enjoying themselves. He had rescued Calypso from Ogygia, flying away on Festus the awesomeness. It took a great while for Calypso to get used to company, the modern world, all the crowds and incredible inventions.

Her expression was frankly quite hilarious when they almost accidentally crash into an airplane, and as dangerous as that was they had a good laugh about it later on. Leo have to give credit to her for being really good at improvising, getting used to all the strangeness the world now have to offer, the queer ideas that mortals have.

As flexible as she was, there is still one fault that she is looking forward to vanquish — incredible shyness in crowds.

Leo still cannot believe what a turn his life can came across. Two years ago, he was rampaging through orphanages, then he was sent to freaking wild-life school, only to be told his life is a lie and that he is a demigod destined to save the world. Then he died and resurrected on his personal bronze dragon.

Now he is dating a goddess. Every time Calypso look at him, his heart skip a beat, when she smiles at him, he swear that he got smoke billowing from his nostrils and that his shoes will burst on fire.

Leo had been taking Calypso around the world the hard way — on a fire-breathing bronze dragon with a goddess is as bad as using a phone. Everywhere, monsters swarm in to take a bite at the travelers.

Calypso also learned hero-ing the hard way. And by the gods, this girl is really deadly with a magical shear and shovel. Even though she was kind and compassionate, or that every thing she does was good (for him anyway), there was a certain steel in her that is not to be underestimated, a fact that Leo loves.

Leo caught a few jealous guys glaring at him as if thinking: _what is a loser like that doing with such a beautiful girl? _Leo waved cheerfully back at them, smirking smugly, but that only earned him a rap on his other knuckle by Calypso, who was frowning at his behavior.

Leo gave her an apologizing shrug, before offering her a hand. Calypso accept his hand before following him away onto the streets, leaving a bunch of fuming college students behind at the tables.

Since demigods do not have passports (nor really need one), it was somewhat tricky if they wanted to set up anything that interacts with mortals. But luckily, with Calypso the all-rounder goddess, manipulating the mist to fool the mortals was a piece of cake.

With the mist, Calypso had given Leo a make over, changing his height and look to every other person out there so that no may recognize him, and leo also appreciated the minor height boost. With her magic, she had made convincing identities for them. Leo's name is now Leo Vladez (not really a change, but good enough change to fool the passports and memories), a parentless, young prodigy college student that already have several degrees in engineering and programming, roaming around to find a job. Leo himself have no idea how the mist work, how magic can for once work in synergy with machines and computers, changing the _reality._

Calypso's back story is also somewhat similar. An orphan ( really, what is it with orphans? ), of quite a sad background, a missing parent with the other one in jail permanently . She too had a degree in engineering, and also biology and home economics, which wasn't far away from the truth.

Now supposedly both of them are graduated, met in school and are looking for work. It was a tricky business to find a suitable place for working in, a free enough place to compensate for Leo's ADHD, a job that both him and Calypso and work in for he knows perfectly that she will never stay at home as a puny housewife. Not a chance in the name of Zeus.

He had been considering applying for the Stark Industries, a very open company that only accepts the best. Calypso had supported this idea greatly, saying that Stark's playboy attitude would synchronize well with Leo the ADHD. Leo had snorted at that at first, but then he later on realized that this is actually a pretty good idea, though maybe not too inconspicuous. After all, they got _a lot _to hide.

He led Calypso into a car park through a lift in a mall, merging in with the crowds. In the car park itself the concrete floors are empty of mortals enough, though the parking spaces are completely flooding with cars of every sort.

Deftly, Leo lifted a bronze whistle onto his lips and blew hard. A shrill but strangely metallic _beep! _rang out though in the car park. A deep engine roar answered his call.

Leo broke into a grin when he saw his favorite car roll out of its own parking space. The 'car' was bronze in color, flashes of fire painted on its side, giving the impression that the car was on permanent immolation.

The strangest thing is that there is no driver in the car.

Acting like a gentleman, Leo lead Calypso into her seat by the arm, before climbing into the driver's seat himself. As soon as he planted his bottom, the car's engine letted out a decidedly happy rumble.

Planting his feet on the paddles, Leo sped them through the car park, zooming out of the building.

Even though it was already night, the streets are still populated with pedestrians, going about their business. Leo had lend a good-sized apartment with a balcony, which Calypso appreciated a lot. The apartment itself was more of a workshop than living quarters. With a single bedroom, Leo and Calypso were forced to share the bed. Calypso did not mind that at all, but Leo had flustered and refused. Even though he love Calypso, he wasn't ready for that level of intimacy. Even though his 'age' was technically eighteen, his soul was still very much fifteen. How ever, Calypso didn't push him further, at which he promptly offered to sleep in a mattress on the floor instead.

On the heavy duty table, various pieces of metals and tools laid around, pistons, motors and other contraption were stored in boxes, diagrams stacking up upon each other, giving the room an organized-mess feeling.

There is a single washroom and kitchen, heavily modified by Leo himself. He would always make sure that his girlfriend will always have the best.

After taking turns showering and cleaning up, they retreated to bed. They got a hard day tomorrow, the day that Leo and Calypso take the admission test to enter the Stark Industry.

~PERCY~

"Do you _have _to do that to the Director?" Percy scowled as they entered the camp, appearing out of Thalia's Tree, startling the dragon,

Nico hummed, "Maybe not. But seriously, you are in a lot of trouble."

Percy muttered under his breath, "Yeah, as if I didn't know."

Unfortunately, Nico heard it and replied as they jogged down the hill, "You have positively no idea. Chiron will be able to explain to you."

In the distance, Percy can see the camp fire roar into the sky, a dancing nervous shade of green. The sky was clear as always, the stars and the moon shining down, lighting the valley in a silvery glow. Crickets and other wildlife noises can be heard over the slight wind, the smell of strawberry and earth in the air, with a tinge of smoke from the distant barbecue.

The smell of home. The smell of peace that that disguises the amount of carnage these lands had seen.

As they near the camp fire, passing the empty cabins, Percy was suddenly struck with dread, cursing himself that he forgot about this. He whispered nervously to Nico, "Dang it, I forgot that they might have planted a tracking device on me!"

Nico frowned for a moment, before smirking, "Shadow traveling shorts out any electronic devices. You are bug free, for now. Lets stop talking, shall we? Everyone is itching to murder you."

When Percy entered the clearing, the demigods fell silent, the campfire flared black. To his chagrin, he found that all of the other Great Seven (not counting Leo) are regarding him in the same grim expression, most of them looked like as if they are itching to say something, but held back.

"Percy, you're here," Chiron said softly, as if mourning over his funeral.

"Yeah. I'm here."

Chiron motioned to the Seven, "Come with me, we will speak in the big house." They left their seats silently, walking away behind Chiron silently, the other campers watching them go with dreary eyes.

When they reached the big house and sat around the pingpong table, where Mr. D was surprisingly absent , Chiron spoke, "Percy, you do understand the magnitude of what happened, right?"

"Yes, I do," Percy said, sobered.

Annabeth spoke, "Tell us everything, from the start."

And so, Percy did, all the way from his little meeting in the Shawarma Palace, how the mortals are able to locate him, to how at the end Nico and Percy had to terrorize the Director. Percy tried to explain it as efficiently as possible, but it was hard for him with his ADHD and his confused mind.

At least his listeners listened patiently, not interrupting (not possible if Leo was here), and the end of his tell, Jason asked, "Are you sure you did not reveal our existence except yours and Nico's?" Every word to the point, must be his Praetor genes kicking in, a detached part of Percy's mind decided.

"Well, I did say 'we', but I didn't mention 'gods' or our purpose," Percy said, glaring at Nico, "Unless you count Nico using his shadows to own Fury."

Nico stared back with wide, innocent eyes, "Oh. I'm so sorry!"

Everyone else groaned at their pointless bickering. Ever since Nico met Cupid, he changed a lot, the relation between him and other campers became less tense, but the new openness gave room for a newer problem — extreme competitiveness.

It was fine when Nico was struggling to heal, to the point he would fade away when the sun shines on him. Right then at least he can do nothing but talk with Will Solace around, but now, especially after his public declaration of a crush on a very confused Percy, troubles started stirring.

Chiron started speaking, snapping Percy back to the present, "This is grave news, children. Under no conditions can you ever reveal the Mythological World to mortals. They cannot comprehend. I will have to stop all quests for at least a month until we see how they react."

"Do what you have to do, Chiron," Annabeth said, and the others murmured their assent.

Chiron nodded gravely, "So it shall be, then. Get a good rest. A heavy future lies before us."


	5. You're joking, right?

Pepper scowled into her phone, an alarmingly increasing habit of hers ever since Tony gave her the tile of CEO. The man on the opposite phone was frustratingly incorporative, repeating his pointless questions and ridiculous points over and over again in a whiny voice. Worst of all, he demanded a pay raise in a very, very disrespectful tone. After fifteen minutes of a heated argument, she finally slammed her office phone down on its table, the glass almost cracking.

Scowling again, she took a sip of coffee from her cup in an effort to calm herself down, letting the bitter yet rich flavor sooth her mind. Setting the cup down, she grimly grabbed her note book to jolt down a name: Samuel Kenway, to remind herself to ask his superiors to keep an eye on this insolent fool.

Tiredly, she sat down on her chair and stared into the computer screen, files stacking up digitally. She clicked on her timetable and looked at what she would have to do later on:

1. Crucify a certain idiot

2. Have a meeting with a supplier about an a miscalculation in a patch of new pistons and wires

3. Keep an eye on SHIELD

4. Greet the new-comers (if needed)

After giving a phone call, she crossed off the first line. The supplier's meeting will be held tonight before dinner, at six, which meant she got plenty of time. The new-comers to-be are probably still having their interviews, and the list will be chosen approximately around lunch, and in that case she will receive a notification from Jarvis if anyone passed the tests, as unlikely as it was for no one so far did.

Right now, she have a few hours to spare and burn, which greatly revolves around her checking on the stocks with Jarvis, and studying the materials on Avengers' newest mission: Percy Jackson. So far she hadn't received word from Tony, which is not all that unusual, with his chances of stranded in a war-zone and probably in the middle of a lecture. The latter would probably be more probable, after all, what can a single teenage boy do against the Avengers?

After reading the stocks and stifling a yawn, she resigned to a power nap after she discovered the words on the paper almost seemed to be floating off, dosing comfortably on her chair...

~TONY~

Fury had always been a stubborn man, never taking a "no" from anyone, much less a teenager that broke out of his helicarrier and threatened him with his friend, who had apparently appeared on the ship without a trace and disappeared without leaving a clue. Worst of all, Fury can't even get a footage of the entire incident, with only a prominent bruise on the back of his head as a proof.

And of course, he decided to wake everyone from their beds. Natasha, Barton and some other agents were sent to give Mrs. Jackson an early visit. They came back later in the morning. saying in a sombre voice that she and her new husband Mr. Paul had gone missing, as did every single piece of furniture in the apartment and their name official ledger, the rooms empty of finger prints, the only evidences that they had lived there are memories, which too was also fading from the neighbors mind as if they had all undergone mind wipes.

Very, very suspicious.

Tony and Bruce themselves are busy trying to retrace the strange energy the boy was practically leaking out again. Technically, this should be relatively quick, given that they already knew what the energy level's "code", knowing what they are actually looking for. But now somehow by some unknown means Percy Jackson and his accomplices had managed to disappear off the face of earth without a trace, the energy "footprints" ending abruptly at a wall.

Even more suspicious.

According to Fury, the other Gothic Emo boy have powers over shadows, that he managed to make ghosty arms without much effort. That alone was pretty confunding. Is it true magic? Doe such a thing exist? Tony himself is an absolute believer in science, that everything can be explained with rational and possible means. Heck, even the Nordic Gods turned out to be powerful aliens, their sorcery and illusions merely biological electric discharges.

So, how to explain his apparent Umbrakinesis with logic? Shadow is a lack of light energy, not a solid form, nor can it effect anything due to it being literally nothing... Just working on this topic makes his brain hurt, which was a miracle considering his formidable mind power and IQ.

Next to him, Bruce was heaving similar problems. Science can sometimes too do pretty unexplainable things. Bruce, for once is a living example. His mass change when he 'Hulk-out' was ridiculous. He normally weights around an average man, yet after shifting he increases to several tons. How? Where did the matter came from?

Bruce himself suggested that the gamma rays might have affected the timeline theorem, sifting things that should not exist from another parallel universe. If that was true... No. No way they are crossing that line. No time travelling. Not ever.

Stretching and massaging the stiffness out of his joints, Tony gave a huge yawn and lumbered toward the washroom, dunking his face in the sink to wash it vigourously. Looking up at himself from the mirror, his face looked specially worn out and tire, with the water beads on he looked positively like a airplane crash survivor.

This mission was supposed to be simple. A quick snatch, run and questions. Now, they had evolved into a crazy conspiracy with... Magic.

He considered about giving Pepper a call, but decided against it. He had no idea what she was doing at the time, if she was busy or not. Or if the line was safe.

He then thought about the very specific words the other boy had said, which simplifies to: stay out of my way and the look the other way. Stop seeking and mind your own business.

Personally, Tony would have listened to the warning and scram. But Fury is a proud man, and he hates not knowing literally everything. The boys had ticked him off, and nothing can hold him back now.

From the video footage inside the 'cage', Percy Jackson was simply siting on his chair staring off into space. Then the interesting thing happened.

For some peculiar reasons, the shadows started to thicken, the darker areas turning pitch black and the lighted parts turning into a stark white. Then something covered the camera, and the screens wsnt black.

The strange thing is that nothing hacked into the computer, meaning that there must be something that covers it. But what was that? Shadows can not obstruct the camera! It got night vision installed! Nor should it even work for shadows have no matter ( the literal scientific one) !

Such things cause Tony a headache.

Sighing, he decided to take a break, even though the situation is sort of urgent. He flung away the plasma screens with a casual flick of his hands into the bathroom mirror, he walked out of the room. The missing weight from his chest was quite disconcerting, the arc reactor was removed ever since his incidence with the flaming dudes that got a vendetta on him. The Arc was removed, and instead artificial bones and flesh was placed in instead. To the normal, untrained eyes, his chest would be the same as any other, the chest air and pores full on. But to people like Natasha, they would immediately trace the minuscular folds on the edges.

With this privileges, however, the suits will have to power themselves. Each one have its mini-reactor in them, meaning that if changing suits there will be low chances that he might run out of power. But unfortunately it meant that if his suits got captured, the capturer can do what ever he wants with it... If the fail-save detonation programs still work with out getting fired.

He checked his phone, swilling onto Pepper's profile. It would seem that she was having a relatively simple day. Oh wait. Two supposedly 'prodigies' are seeking to enter his company, to work for him as his 'apprentices'. Really, if they pass the tests at all, they would be well above average already, since that nobody else so far made it. It came to him that should they pass, he should be the one to meet them on day one. Pity he couldn't leave Fury to stir in his pot of trouble... or can he?

Contemplating for a second, Tony closed the door behind him in the double entrance room he found himself in. One leads into his lab, the other one leads onto a... balcony? He have no idea what to call these things if they are flying.

Outside the Helicarrier, the aircraft was surrounded in a dense cloud, obstructing vision and giving the air an out-worldy feeling, only the firm hum of the rotors penetrating the silence of the smog. The air have an electric taste to it, every wisp of mist tingling his senses when he walked onto the small platform, surrounded by fences.

Deftly, he hunted for a chocolate bar in his pockets. Its going to be a long day.

~LEO~

He tapped his fingers on the table nervously, waiting for the results to arrive, missing his phone. As the son of the divine craftsman, he was the only one that can use phones, computers and other technologies without sending out a demigod signal to every monster there is. Right now, he is itching to throttle the man that made the rule - no phones while waiting. Calypso touched his fingers from over the table, facing him with a raised eyebrow.

He stopped tapping but grasped her hand instead, smiling somewhat apologizing to his girlfriend. At first, the test went well, answering questions, building things out of scraps, designing - Leo's favorite. But then, in the proper interview where a bald old man ask you questions about your life, why would you wan't to come to this company, Leo had been rather... uncooperative, causing the interviewer to storm out, face red with a scowl worthy of Hephaestus.

Empathize on uncooperative.

"You think that we will be accepted?" Leo asked.

"Of course. The tests are frankly ridiculously simple, nothing that can stand in _our _way..." Calypso said in patronizing manner.

It was, actually, very simple, a matrix of math, chemistry and engineering. Once again, Leo was very grateful for his godly heritage. Even though some of the questions he hadn't exactly heard of before, his godly blood allow him to instinctively know that answer, which was very, very helpful.

"Well, yes, that. But then I _did _sort of messed up the aptitude test..." Leo muttered in a mocking-grim tone.

Calypso snorted, a uncharacteristic action of hers, "Tony Stark is the one with an aptitude. If he was the one who set up the company, odds that he will welcome us with open arms."

"You know, we shouldn't be insulting him. Somewhere in the future he might be our boss, you know."

"As if you would care about that when you insulted his technician. Very creative language in the part about his mother, you know."

Leo pouted with puppy-dog's eyes, put only received a rap on his forehead for his trouble. The waited in silence again.

The room they were waiting in was simple: a white plastered concrete box, a set of simple light tubes hung from the ceiling, a door hugged the corner and a wide rectangular one-sided window next to it; a single stainless steel table dominates the middle, flanked by two chair, on the top of the west wall was a ventilation shaft.

All in all, this place reminded Leo of a police station's questioning room (he would know since he had been in one when he was younger), albeit with much better air-con.

Leo glanced at his watch: twelve thirty. With a shock, he realized that he had been the same room for over ten minutes - a new record. He started tapping impatiently on the table again.

After about another two minutes, the door opened, admitting a blonde, still-youngish women that was dressed in a suit in. The two waiting godlings immediately recognized who she is - Pepper Potts, the CEO and secretary of Tony Stark. They immediately stood up in respect of her (apparently she too had a part in many save-the-world business and was very intelligent on her own).

The secretary smiled and motioned them to sit, saying, "Please do not stand up, it makes me feel old."

Calypso chuckled at that, know full well the meaning of age. Leo glanced once at her, before turning his attention back on Pepper, "So... We passed?" he said in a hopeful voice.

The secretary smiled again and said, "Yes, you did."

At that, Leo threw his arms up into the air in an imitation of glee and party-hyper, tackling a shocked Calypso in a hug, who desperately tried to untangle herself from him. _WE GOT ACCEPTED WE GOT ACCEPTED! _

Pepper continued, "In fact, your grades were more than outstanding, it's more than higher than every other appliers, the pair of you both got full marks!" she finished in an amazed tone, "Really, you are the first to pass the tests so far in a year. How did you do that?"

"Prodigy, remember?" Leo flashed a big wide grin, before hugging a flustered Calypso again.

Pepper cocked her head to one side, an amused smile growing on her lips, "Hmm, maybe. Come with me now, I will have to give you a tour, wouldn't I?"

If it was possible, Leo's face lit up even more.

~PERCY~

_Why is my life so complicated? _Percy complained to himself as an out-of-breath son of Iris came barging into his room, telling him that Chiron requires him. Putting on his jacket, making sure that he got his shield-watch on, a backpack full of demigod equipments - duct tape, gloves, a stack of _drachma, _nectar and ambrosia, ropes, water bottles, towel, mortal cash and countless other necessities - he walked out of his cabin.

He can't talk to Annabeth again, this time because she was incredibly busy with all the emergency demigod plans, recalling everyone that was on a mission, from of Greek and Romans. In fact, her entire cabin was forced under stress, needing to quell the rapid confusion and propaganda about mortals coming to wipe them out.

Most campers were already at the newly-constructed canteen, sitting where ever they want while waiting for lunch to begin. Percy looked at them longingly before moving on, grumbling.

By the time he arrived at the Big House, lunch had already began, the smell of food drifting over the campsite, causing Percy's stomach to rumble. Without hesitation, he opened the big double doors and entered.

Chiron was sitting (surprisingly this time, he was in a wheelchair) at the head of the ping pong table, the rest of the existing Seven at the sides of the table, which this time only includes Hazel, Jason, Frank and Piper, their expressions somewhat serious, not showing their emotions. On the other end of the table was two seats, one which was occupied by Nico.

This doesn't bode well.

Percy grimly sat down at his seat, resisting the urge to twist and forced himself to speak in a level tone, "I guess that the... diplomacy went wrong?"

Almost everyone raised an eyebrow at him.

"So what went wrong this time?"

Hazel spoke, "the 'intimidation' went wrong, Percy. Director Fury is a tough one. If it wasn't for Hecate looking after you, they would have got your parents."

Percy glared at Nico unceremoniously, the latter giving a shrug in return, the first asking agitatedly, "Where are they now?"

"Relax, Percy. They've been brought to New Rome," Jason said, "The mortals can't find them through magic."

Percy let go of his breath, and asked again, "So... whats the problem now?"

Chiron said in an ominous tone, "They are going to search for you where ever you go, and it will endanger all the other demigods out their, as well as humans," he placed his hands on the table to empathize his point, "So, after a debate by the gods, they've decided that you have to go join the Avengers as an ambassador."

_"WHAT?"_

* * *

><p><strong>I love cliffhangers - so exciting, no?<strong>

**Okay, I was a little evil there. **

**So, thanks for reading and reviewing. I'm sorry I can't reply to the reviews and that my update was so slowwwwww, I'm so busssssyyyyyyyyyyy!**

**But either way, thanks for reading. Please review! :D**


	6. Councils

Leo itched to dismember every single piece of machine he came across, and only Calypso pinning his hand at his side reminds him that he _cannot _mess this up.

Stark Manor (not Stark Tower, that's a monument now, supposedly) is a giant roomy building on a sea cliff, apparently rebuilt from its predecessor's ruin. Its design is basic still the same as the one before, with some minor teaks and improvements. It now resembles more of a stylized fort than a home, very discreet cannons were disguised as random artistic arches and satellite disks, the constructions bases were reinforced, a massive overhaul of subtle defenses.

Leo had to give it to Stark - the man sure knows how to design awesome things. He wonder if Stark is actually a long lost descendant of Hephaestus, which in fact wouldn't come as a great surprise. Seriously, if you look at their family tree, you can find that practically everyone whose last name is Stark is an inventor of important machines or made incredible discoveries, or both!

Suddenly, Leo suddenly realized he had been rubbing his hand up and down a particular computer he had taken a liking to. Embarrassed, he drew his hand away and hoped no one noticed. They were in the underground workshop, where all the machines are pieced together. He had always know that Jarvis is around, but he was frankly stunned at its complexity. It program literally got a personality of its own, polite yet not above humor, a perfect companion for an obsessive engineer. Once again, he wonder if he can make a voice box for Featus, or get it to run his own home's security system. He can do it, in time for sure... and than he abruptly remembered that he will no longer live in his small apartment in New York. He will be living here in Stark Manor in his own bedroom with Calypso, and Pepper and Stark himself just next door, parking Featus in stasis mode in his own personal parking space. Luckily for the Starks, he think that they had went off the right way...

Leo snapped back to present as Calypso nudge him with her leg, her eyes rolling. His eyes darted around in alarm until he realized that Pepper had asked him a question, and he asked innocently, "Hmm, yes?"

"Are we clear then?" She asked patiently, as if she was used to explaining things over and over again to attention-lacking juniors.

"Umm, yeah — wait, where is my new boss, actually?"

"Tony? You know, he is doing his heroing (ha!) business. By the way, as his apprentice, please just call him Tony and me Pepper. No mister and missy, okay?"

Confounded, Leo asked, "Why?"

"It makes us feel old and bald, Leo. And we have had enough of formality in the day already, I believe. Also, we will be living together. No point having a rift, no?"

Calypso nodded knowingly, and said, "So, _Pepper,_ what will we be doing for now? We can't exactly be waiting around forever for Tony to come back, right?"

"Well, since this is your first day, doing anything is actually optional. But, if you like, I can assign bits and pieces of Tony's stuff for you to work on, to familiar yourself with this place, hmm?"

Leo and Calypso exchanged a quick look before answering swiftly, "Sure, what are we working on?"

Pepper went off and started rummaging through Tony's desk, "Tony had written a file full of little projects that he doesn't have time to finish. It was originally made to remind himself, but obviously it didn't work. Now, I think it will serve a better purpose," witch a large plunk, Pepper unearthed a heavy blue book from beneath a mound of wrenches and tools, "Normally he keep stuffs digitally, but I think that this... book was even older than when he made the invented the plasma screens and that he never bothered to upload it. So, here it is. The Book of Crazy Unfinished Ideas."

"Nice name," Leo sniggered.

"Actually Tony did name it that," Pepper said matter-of-factly, handing the book over to Leo. It was thicker and heavier than he expected, and nearly dropped it on his feet. He set it down hard on his table, and flipped the cover open.

It was a computer, no wonder it was so heavy.

Pepper raised an eyebrow and said sheepishly, "Okay, I didn't know that."

Leo made for the start button, and the machine whirled to life, the screen flashing before settling down into a password-asking page. Calypso called out, "Pepper, do you know the password?"

Pepper walked over and stared at the computer, confusion creasing her brows. Rested her hand on the key board, pausing for a minute. Finally, she said, "I did not know the password. This thing was around long before I was first hired. I'm sorry, Leo, I should have checked it first-"

"Its all right," Leo said disappointedly, grabbing the book/computer (bookuter?) and sat down on a chair, setting the bookuter on his lap, gazing intently at the screen. Suddenly, a mischievous smile lit up his face and he said excitedly, "What if I tried to hack it?"

Pepper gave a snort and laughed, "If you can get past Tony's programming, you would be better than he is."

Leo cracked his knuckles and grinned maniacally, readying his fingers on the keyboard. Pepper realized something, "Wait. You're serious about this?"

"He is..." Calypso murmured, shaking her head in amusement.

"Come to papa!" Leo grinned.

~PERCY~

What is it with incriminating councils these days? First at camp, now he was whisked off into _Olympus, _the home of the Gods to have his fate decided. First time he went up there is to give the master bolt back. The second time is to debate that wether should they kill him. The third and fourth time is to defend it from the Titans and a massive party afterward.

Now, once again, they are deciding what to do with _him. _The fact that it was a world rending topic wasn't really reassuring. _Hey Percy, why don't you come over to Olympus to discuss things that can wipe out earth? It will be fun!_

Forgive him if he was slightly nervous.

Olympus itself was just as majestic as when he last saw it, if not more. _Annabeth works hard,_ he realized one more with a weary smile. There was definitely good changes, more artistic columns, fountains and other architect mumbo-jumbo (it wasn't his fault that he was naturally born with no appreciation for stuff like that). It just generally looked better, more _regal_.

Percy stopped just beyond the gates of the throne room, taking a deep breath. Last time he was here at least he got his buddies, but now he was alone. No one to keep him from jabbering himself to an early grave, no one to _speak _in his place.

How he detests councils.

On the side of the gates, the Divine Doorman Janus was there as well, both faces gazing at him, the pitying the right sardonic.

The left face said, "Ahh Percy. You better ready yourself. It was ugly in there."

The right face smirked, "Relax. Go and enjoy yourself, hmm?"

Perch ignored both of them as he stepped forward, Janus meekly waved his hands and pushed the gates open with a rumble akin to thunder.

The amount of godly energy buzzing in the room almost cause Percy to burst apart right there and then. Leaving their giant thrones, the gods were heatedly arguing, some of them in threatening tones complete with weapons waving about. Percy joggled at the sight of his deities squabbling old spoiled brats in kindergarten. Even Hestia looked heated, cheek inflamed.

After a bit of waiting and a lot of waving, Zeus finally noticed him with a raised eyebrow. Apparently deciding enough is enough, he slammed his Master Bolt - currently in staff form — onto the ground. A miniature golden shockwave blasted from the staff, a thunder crack roars within the vast chamber, echoing around the dome-shaped walls.

The force from the shock wave nearly knocked Percy off his feet. However, the other Gods are barely deterred, and that only the voice of Zeus bellowing over everyone else's stopped their bickering, using his Master Bolt as a microphone, "SILENCE!"

The Gods looked at Percy in surprise as they finally noticed him, grumbling indignantly as they sat down. Some of the Gods looked sheepish though, namely the more respectable gods (ahem!), the rest had their head held high in a show of stubbornness. Most looked at him with a bit of pity, as if they knew that he was about to die a horrible death after a lifelong torture.

Curiously, Hades was also around, once again sitting in his guest throne in the shadows. He does not look happy at all, his helm on his greasy head as the slightly less scarier bone crown, his eyes brooding and his toga hung off him like a scarecrow. He sat lazily on his throne, regarding everything with a distant interest as if they are simply a new species of monster he hadn't noticed before. On the other side of the shadows, hidden within mists is Hecate, leaning against the wall.

Finally, after a while, the Gods settled down onto their respective seats. Zeus gazed around, confirming that everyone is sitting down, before speaking in a clear and serious voice, "Percy Jackson."

How many times have someone call his name like that without actually meaning to kill him later? Three, four? Maybe less.

"Yes, my lord?"

"You are summoned here (more like dragged screaming) to participate in our... council about the mortal's knowledge of us."

"I know,"

"Then..." Zeus gestured at Athena, giving her a nod.

"We've came to a conclusion," She continued on, all the while ignoring some of the dirty looks from other Gods. Apparently, they've had a similar argument before already, and that whatever Athena had in mind won, one way or another. She said, "Since the chain of event were already set in motion, conflict will be inevitable. With the mortals now aware of your presence, it would be impossible for you or any other demigods to conduct their business on earth without risking detection. That was proven by Hecate herself, the goddess of paths."

Hecate nodded, mumbling in a surprisingly loud voice from her shadows, "I've seen into the paths, the road that lies before us if we choose poorly," with a wave of her hands, a misty holograph blanketed the hearth fire in the centre of the room. With twists and convulsions, the Mist solidify into clear images and the hall began to darken.

The first scene was a few unknown demigods being captured by men in armor, their mouths gagged and their hands bound, being thrown into the back of an armored van. Hecate said, "If we ignore them and hoped that they ignore us too, it will not work, for the power of mortals are now strong enough to detect whatever small defects in the Mist or histories," The next scene shows the same demigod being dragged onto a dissection table by ghosty hands, binding her arms to cuffs and sedating her with needles. A few murmuring voice can be heard, as a misty spectre emerges from the side, in its hand was a knife, brought down savagely upon the demigod-

And the image bursted apart, the mist drifting off, light returning to the hall. Hecate continued, "Demigods will be destroyed by mortals, not by Titans nor Giants,

Percy subconsciously raised a hand over his heart, and was shocked to find that it was beating furiously, sweat perspiring from his brow. His arms shivering as if he was cold. Is it... fear? From mortals?

"If we, the Gods, choose to destroy man, it will result in our destruction," Athena said, "the demigods hold compassion with man, we are connected more than we thought. If man were destroyed, their will be no prayers to us, and we will soon be forgotten, that and the demigods will rise up against us in revenge."

Percy's mind went blank, and he scowled, not at all surprised that the Gods _once again _decided to do genocide. Why is always about wiping everyone alive out? And damn right the demigods will definitely try to overthrow the gods!

"So that is out of the question." Athena continued, oblivious to Ares' disappointed tut, "But it _doesn't _mean that we cannot _scare _them," She turned her eyes toward Percy with a mischievous glint, "I propose that we send a suitable monster to terrorize the Mortals to teach them a lesson, and then our hero will come and save the day, proofing just how helpless they are against our wrath. Then, we can offer Jackson here as a member among their ranks with the excuse that if they meddle in our affairs, be prepared for consequences. Any objections or... better ideas?"

Silence covered the hall as every immortal considered the proposal. Percy felt a line of sweat falling down the side of his face, knowing that full well his fate comes moments later.

Finally, breaking the deafening silence, Zeus nodded grimly, "I have no objections," glancing around at the room, the other Gods shook their heads, shrugging occasionally in consent.

At that, Athena clapped once, before speaking in a victorious tone, "Then, its decided. Now, lets agree on which monster to summon, shall we? I invite Ketos, the mother of all sea monstrosities, to join us in our council today!"

As Percy's mind reel in shock in repulsion, the great gates swung open once more. And from the gate, a goddess of a fashion that he had never saw in flesh before came in. Last time he saw Ketos, she was this goofy marine facto-maniac. And now... Boy was she _ugly._

A giant sea-serpent from waist down, her face still bares resemblance to her human guise, but definitely ugly-fied. Her smart suit was replaced with a slimy toga, her anemone hair bound in seaweed laurel, all that was dripping wet. Her face more beast-like than ever, and that perpetual sneer on her face wasn't exactly helping her a lot. Corals circles around her arms like armbands, spikes protruding horribly from her back. Muddy water _oozed _off her as she slithered forward the centre of the hall, staying far away from the hearth fire and giving everyone the stink-eye. Percy for once wisely dodged out of the way.

Poseidon and some other gods wrinkled their noses in disapproval, Aphrodite almost shrieked in disgust, though Ares somewhat nodded as if he considered giving the goddess thumbs up on fashion. Zeus frowned at Ketos display of defiances, before speaking, "You know why you are summoned here."

Ketos spoke in a grating hiss, "Yes," before glaring at Percy, who returned the compliments.

"We have need of one of your offsprings," Athena said, "And for that service we will release you from your parol,"

Ketos' eyes widened for a faction of a second, evidentially surprised at Athena's generous offer. Other Gods raised their eyebrows at her rash decision, but did not object. Percy himself was shocked too. He knew that some betraying gods and titans were locked up or punished. Prometheus was letted off the hook apparently because she sided with the gods this time, and Calypso apparently disappeared from her island. Others like the traitorous Phorkys and the snake-man kings were thrown into Tartarus or kept under parol. Since no one can prove Ketos was traitorous, for she can actually be attacking the Argonauts for revenge on her home.

Ketos hissed out nervously, her bravado somewhat smaller now, "No strings attached."

Athena smiled terribly, "Of course, no strings, we swear it on the River Styx," after receiving a 'go on' look from Zeus.

As soon as the immortal invoked the name of Styx, the room darkened for a fraction of a second. And as swiftly as it came, light was restored.

"Then I accept the offer," Ketos immediately said without hesitation. When the magic took effect, shining manacles appeared on her wrists, cracks glowing golden with power before shattering with a boom, the pieces dissolved into the air.

Looking down at her hands in wonder, Ketos began to shrink, the serpent retreating back like a demented version of Little Mermaid 2, her hair turned back to black and glossy, her skin taking a much healthier glow than the drowned flesh she had before, the water steaming away. Not before long, she looked just like what she was in Atlanta Aquarium, all bookish and geek-ish. Hastily, she scrapped a bow at Zeus, "Mumbling, my powers are yours..."

Poseidon spoke up, "Choose a monster from your mastery, Ketos. One that a mortal cannot hope to conquer, all but a demigod."

Ketos quieted at that, before saying minutes later, "Cetus," The word echoed around the silent hall, a name of great power.

Percy desperately tried to remember the name. Cetus, Cetus, Cetus...

Suddenly he remembered, the monster that he had heard before. When he was younger, he was obsessed with the chronicles of the original Perseus, and remembered all the details. Cetus was the supa-sea-serpent that Perseus killed to rescue Andromeda. He killed Cetus with the Medusa's eyes, he remembered.

Well, dang. So no one actually know how to _kill _the thing.

Great. Another one for the _Mission __Impossible _list.

~TONY~

He was checking his phone when a voice suddenly boomed out of it, causing him to _almost _throw it straight into the Molecularizer Bin he was working on, causing him to use a very complex list of vocabulary that will be frowned upon.

And most enigmatic thing was what the voice just said:

"THE COWS SAYS MOO!"

Really, what just happened?

* * *

><p><strong>YEAH ANOTHER CHAPTER!<strong>

**Umm... sorry for the waiting. I'm a slow writer. *.***

**Okay never mind that. Super plot twist.**

**By the way, I am not throwing all the other characters away. They will still be around, but the story will still be revolving around PERCY!**

**Thx again for reading my story, review are appreciated, no fou- blah blah blah.**


	7. Impact

Fury clenched and unclenched his grip on the railing, watching the group of officers busying themselves with the computers below his platform in the command room, a constant myriad of activities and voice buzzing through the room. Mentally he checked the list of precautions in his head. The deflector shields are on, all engines working normally, the radar and sonic probes online, nothing showing up in all the surveillance he set up across the globe or the sonars below the Helicarrier, working nonstop below the hull in the sea…

And that is exactly what bugged him the most. No signs of the two... "demigods" that showed up and slipped away. Not on the satellites, nor from the public profiles, the Jackson couples were missing as well, as if they never existed. That certainly was not true. Percy Jackson was on camera in the Helicarrier, nothing could disprove that. Once again he had sent Agents Romanoff and Hawkseye off on another investigation mission after they had had a rest.

By then, five in the afternoon, they must have noticed that he ignored their warnings completely, continuing his massive search for these "demigods" without even bothering to hide the fact. Fury had no doubt that the demigods will retaliate, hard and mercilessly... but why is he still alive then?

"Hill!" he called out, looking up as the agent approached him, who gave him a quizzed slant of her head. Fury asked, "Anything yet?"

"No sir, nothing so far," she replied cautiously, knowing that Fury's fusee was close to snapping and burning.

Sighing, Fury shook his head tiredly before saying, "Keep an eye here. Report to me immediately if anything, _anything, _happens. Are we clear?"

"Yes sir," came the curt reply.

"Good,"Fury said, walking away back into the Globe Room behind. The Globe is a holographic Earth, a floating see-through planet crossed understand with flight marks, dotted with many marks of agent activities and objects of interests. The Stark Tower, the Stark Manor, the Helicarrier, all the various bases... all are on the Globe. The Globe hovered in the middle of a halo table, chairs ringed around it.

Perching on one of them, was doctor Banner, his glassed eyes scrutinizing the surface, his fingers flying across other holographic screens that hind in the air. Fury himself personally understand half of what Banner is doing, which is more than another human on the Helicarrier. After watching for a while, Fury lost track of whatever he thought he was watching, giving up and sat down on the leading bench.

Bruce suddenly threw his arms up in frustration and slumped backward into his seat, taking his glasses off, wiping them furiously while cursing savagely, a dangerous green tint rising up alarmingly before fading away swiftly. Fury raised an eyebrow, asking, "Problem?"

"Director, there is simply nothing I can do anymore. We've searched every possible corner of the Earth, nothing matches, no residue, not footprints that matches. You can't find him if he doesn't exist!"

"I am very sure that Percy Jackson existed, doctor," Fury said lazily.

"What? Oh, I mean that he is gone from this dimension! Or not on earth, in other time streams, in space — whichever it is — that he is not _here._ Not on Earth, now."

Fury considered this for a moment, before saying, "Keep the surveillance on. If anything happens-"

He was cut short when a great alarmed murmur rose up in the command room. Turning around, he heard Agent Hill yelling out, "Director, an unknown boogie just appeared on the sonar! Its huge and it's heading straight for us!"

Hurrying out of the room with haste, a foreboding sensation settling over his heart, doctor Banner following behind, Fury took a quick look at the sonar screens, a mere glance at the massive white blotch taking up the screen, and immediately roared, "FULL ALERT! BATTLE AT ARMS, LEVEL FIVE, NOW!"

The well trained officers immediately reacted, switching all the torpedoes and cannons on, the deflector shields burrowing and rearranging itself to form a stronger hull, all the pilots activated, herded to their planes.

The giant blotch on the was approaching fast, _very fast, _like a homing missile it swiveled toward the Helicarrier head on at an alarming rate. How on earth had that _thing _appeared without a warning? What is that _thing? _It was absolutely huge, at least four times as long in length than the Helicarrier itself, which in itself is more than astounding, and just as wide as the Helicarrier... like a serpent.

Suddenly, the _thing _gave an impossible burst of speed, closing in the remaining kilometer in seconds. Through the windows at the front of the command room, Fury saw a bulge approaching from the sea beyond the Helicarrier, white waves boiling at them. Fury instinctively bellowed into the COM, his heart beating madly, "BRACE FOR IMPACT!" Not looking to see that wether the crew heeded his warning or not, he grabbed the emergency steering rod and twisted violently towards the right, his knees bending in a brace-

**WHAMM! **

The massive impact threw everyone off their feet despite the warning, the unfortunate un-readied even flew through the air, crashing on to the walls. Fury had driven the Helicarrier to the right, so the _thing _only grazed its side, but the impact was still just as devastating. The impact's shockwave ripped through the Helicarrier, shattering windows and screens, throwing everything that is not nailed down onto the side, papers, files, computers, everything crashing together in a colossus crunch.

On the deck, pilots clambering onto their Quinjets were tossed into the sea along with their planes, sinking to the murky depth snared to their comrades, vehicles raining off the side of the Helicarrier as it was lifted on its side for a moment, splashing back firmly into the sea seconds later. The _things _rammed onto the Helicarrier's fore-left, leaving a gaping dent on the hull, sheering the first engine away like leave before steering clear, the bulk sinking below the waves.

The impact also released a ridiculous EMP shockwave, all the lights and computers fizzled out, the ventilations, the cooling system, the _engines, _all down with a tragic whirling sound, the electric windows/screens flashed once before fading away.

Alarms failing to blare, Fury struggled to stand up, staggering around and leaning on the twisted railing, his forehead bleeding where he smashed it against the said-railing. Opening his eyes, lights flashing across his eyes and blurring for a moment before fading away, his eyes adjusting to the darkness.

Fury looked around and despaired at the sight. Most of the officers are immediately incapacitated, those that are still awake are either squirming in pain or flopping weakly. The only other one still standing is Hill, bleeding gashes on her arms where broken glass rained on her, waving a 'I'm fine' sign at him. Behind Fury, he found that Banner was missing — and that a hulk shaped hole appeared on the wall, light shining in.

Fury's stomach did a flip when he saw that. It meant that the Hulk is up and fighting what ever that _thing _was — and that two destructive behemoths are fighting on his Helicarrier, a floating, unstable platform of uncountable value filled with vulnerable relics and officers. A very dangerous situation that both can destroy them.

Fury slapped the main controller, turning the screens back on, which mercifully indicated that electricity is still working now, the EMP leaving the electrical system. He manually set the self-defense system online, the turrets swiveling back on, the energy tubes shimmering with power. Fury flipped open his black trench coat, reached inside and took a disk out — a courtesy of Stark, the Jarvis 2, an AI that he made especially more the Helicarrier in case of emergency, something that Fury swore not to use — and plugged it in, the data streaming out immediately. In seconds, the turrets started booming, firing away at an unseen adversity under the water.

_Good afternoon, Director fury, _the all too polite voice of the AI rang out from the COMs, _I trust you had a nice day?_

"No, I did not have a nice day!" Fury yelled back, stumbling to the Globe Room, calling, "Hill! Get over here!"

"Sir-" Agent hill began to say, but caught herself in time. They can't rely on anyone now. They have no idea what they were up against now, and Fury after all is an experienced battle commander. Also, she was cut short when she caught sight of Hulk flying in front of the windows, landing heavily on the other side of the ship, where it letted out a beast-like war.

And what was even more alarming than Hulk flung through the air like tossed junk, is the fact that another thing letting out a roar of its own, even louder than the Hulk's with equal fury.

Fury restarted the screen windows, impatiently ordering Hill to help the others. As soon as the computers are ready, he manually accessed the security cameras, only to find that most of them had been knocked sideway by the crash.

One, however, posed majestically on the roof above the control room.

And the view is _not _pretty. He practically stared with his mouth handing open, at the immensity of the colossus rearing above the water, with a green monster hanging off its many frills like an annoying parasite.

_Sir, the creature just loosed another electric blast. The computer system was not build to withstand high voltage, if the voltage is any higher the circuits will burn, _Jarvis 2 supplied helpfully.

Where is Stark when you need him?

PERCY~

Percy hated portals with all his heart. Wether you were launched magically into space, smacked across the entire planet with a godly slap in a ship, miracle elevators with bad music, it's still equally horrible (with the exception of shadow traveling. Percy loves that).

And this time when Hera offered to give him a 'hand', he smartly declined. No _thank you, _he would very much like to stay in one piece.

He can go his own way (aka jumping off Olympus into the sea below. Don't worry, he'll live), without any godly interference and help. Using the his coordinate senses, he guided himself through the busy city of Olympus, until he was sure that he was standing above the harbor. He was standing on a bridge, spanning across two piece of clouds, golden tiled and built.

Readying himself, he stood at the edge of the bridge (railings are for wimps!). Staring down from such a height send danger tingles up his spine, knowing that anyone sane would be running screaming away from here. Yet, gazing the sea, the golden light of sunset glancing off the water filled him with a sense of peace, knowing that it was his domain, and he will be safe.

Just when he was about to leap off, a sudden booming voice, "JACKSON!" appeared next to him, almost startling Percy to tumble off the bridge. Looking up from his stumble, he was surprised to see Hephaestus walking at him in human form.

Taking the safe route, Percy cautiously bowed, speaking in a respectful tone, "Lord Hephaestus,"

"Jackson,"

"Yes... my lord?"

"Give me your sword," the God said bluntly.

Percy blinked once, before reaching for riptide, handing it to the god, not arguing

The god uncapped the pen, the sword sprang to full size in a fraction of a second. Holding the blade precariously on his palm, Hephaestus breathed onto the sword, fire dancing along his super-hot metal. Holding it in front of him, scanning the weapon with a godly eye swinging it for a few good measures, he grunted in satisfaction before capping Riptide, giving it back to Percy.

Taking it, wincing from the heat, Percy said, "Thank you... for what ever you did," He looked down at Riptide, testing its weight and found no differences, still as natural as it was on the first time he touched it.

"Now, Jackson..." Hephaestus said uncomfortably, "We have something that we decided not to tell you directly. You understand that you will be joining the mortal's ranks as an ambassador, right?"

"Yes...?" Percy ventured cautiously, knowing something _wrong _is going to slap him in the face soon.

Hephaestus took a strangely nervous breath, before looking at Percy straight in the eye, said, "As a part of the mortals rank, you will be expected to fight other mortals. Do you understand what I'm implying?"

Percy's mind clouded in confusion for a moment, before a startling and horrifying clarity rushed in.

He will have to kill other man and creatures. Not monsters, not dangerous spirits that will simply comeback for more, but humans. Hephaestus came to tell him that he will be the God's butcher in the mortal realm.

He realized with a sinking heart and a even more unstable stomach that he had actually foreseen this. How can he not? He knew that demigods are mortal's champion, the best in them and also the worst. All the way world war one, two to every war there is back to Greece, demigods are involved directly or indirectly (courtesy of Annabeth).

He wanted to throw up all over the edge of the bridge. He never understood what it meant by 'having butterflies in your stomach' meant, now he can feel how literal it was.

Hephaestus looked at him with apologetic grunt, slapping him in the shoulder, but Percy barely noticed it. His mind raced back all the way back to the first time he killed a mortal, or a demigod. When was it? With a start, he realized that he no longer remember. Was it during the battle for Olympus? Or the battles later, on their quest for Rome?

"Soldier, look up," a commanding voice said. Somehow that order snapped Percy out of his trance, his head raising from the point on the horizon he had been staring at.

Out of all the deities and gods, Ares is the last person Percy expected to see. Big and muscular, the god of war was dressed in a toga, a huge sword hanging off his belt at his waist, one hand cradling his helm. He was strolling leisurely across the bridge at him, his footpace slow but powerful, Hephaestus shrugged helplessly at him before walking away past him. Percy simply at the approaching God and said, "Ares?"

"Yes, everyone knows who I am. Look, I'm not too fond of you, but I cannot deny that you had proved your worth for greek _and _Rome," Ares admitted gruffly, setting down his helmet on the bridge, "And also the fact you are a comrade of my sons and daughters, and we owed you our allegiance,"

"And now you ask me to fight for you in a war that I have no part of," Percy said tonelessly, staring at the god and his facade.

"I wouldn't put it that way, but yes."

Percy didn't reply but simply looking back with a baleful expression.

"Now, tell me, are you feeling squeamish?" Ares asked.

"_Squeamish? _You are asking me to kill _people_ that I never knew,not monsters or Gods that will want my head on a platter stuffed with an apple!"_  
><em>

"Squeamish it is," Ares decided, and snapped his fingers, a sound more like a rifle firing than a finger snap, louder than any cab-whistle, a boom that must have echoed all over Olympus.

When Percy's ears stopped ringing, he glared at the god, opening his mouth to retort, but was only stopped by one strange fact—his mind was cleared. His stomach stopped wanting to jump out of his bowels. Percy hugged himself to check he was still in one piece, and asked, "What have you done?"

"Removing battle queasiness from your heart. Giving you a clarity of mind in combat, before or after. Overruling your ridiculous sense of moral with the sense of duty," Ares said, cutting off Percy next predictable question, "And I did that because we... as hard as it is do admit, we owe you."

"You've changed, more sociable, not just mindless combat Ares used to be," Percy realized, his eyes surveying the newly reformed god of war.

The said God shrugged, "My Roman side is getting to me, and that is a trait I wouldn't mind having. By the way, do you still remember the curse I placed on you all those you ago, all the '_when you need it most your blade will fail you' _business?"

"How can I not?"

"I officially lifted it from you,"

"Oh wow, thanks...?"

Ares scratched his buzz-cut head, adopting a rare (close to non-existence) sheepish expression, saying, "How many monsters have you _not _be able to defeat with your sword skills? Perhaps you will remember... Chrysaor? That ridiculous son of Medusa? Or the part that you almost got your Achilles' heel back stabbed?"

"Wait. You are telling me that the curse is still there? After five years, its still there?" Percy asked incredulously, outraged.

Ares shrugged nonchalantly, "Not anymore, cupcake,"

Percy blinked once, before realizing what that meant.

He had been fighting underhanded all these times, and yet he is still living and winning.

* * *

><p><strong>MOAR HA HA HA<strong>

**NEW CHAPTER PEOPLE, AND HAIL ME AS YOUR MENTAL SAVIOR!**

**Okay, once again thanks for reading, please review, feel free to do so, blah blah blah...**

**Did you ever wonder how some authors can literally write random things in the 'Author's Corner' and yet still make perfect sense? I do, and am still puzzled.**

**So, here is a little survey question, not sure intelligent or not, so here it is: How old do you think I am?**

**I know its weird, but... Just interested how what people think.**

**So bye!**

**.**

**.**

**.**

**.**

**.**

**.**

**Nah. Surprise!**

* * *

><p>Heimdallr opened his eyes once more and stared onto the distant planet, narrowing his eyes again, in the first time in forever doubting his sight.<p>

No, it cannot be. How—?

Snapping his eyes away from the scene he witnessed, he ran from his position at the edge of the Bifrost, up the bridge, crashing into the busy city, evoking started yelps and yell as he elbowed everyone out of his way.

Odin must be warned. Thor must be warned.


	8. Montage

**Guys, I'm so sorry that I hadn't update for so freaking long. I sort of crashed into a couple of pumps in my life that took up most of my time. So here it is, thank you for waiting!**

* * *

><p>The Debating Hall was usually quiet and orderly. A place for jury and rational decisions. It was a dome-shaped hall lit in golden light, a reminiscent of Earth's courts, a platform surrounded with benches, seated with countless senators and judicators discussing the finer points of law.<p>

And now, through the flurry of flying papers, swearing, and punches, these can be heard:

"—this is preposterous!—"

"—such a thing hadn't been seen for thousands of—"

"—can it be Jörmungandr—"

"—watch your mouth—"

"—nonsense, the Ragnarok was proven to be false—"

"SILENCE!" Odin roared over the crowd, slamming his staff against the ground. The foremost orb on the tip of staff flashed incandescent, momentously blinding everyone in council hall, effectively stopping all other bickering and yelling, "THIS IS A COUNCIL, NOT A NURSERY!"

Thor blinked several times to clear away the spots dancing across his eyes, shaking his head in amusement. Ever since Heimdallr bursted into the council room, bellowing that he had seen a serpent in Midgard, the senators, advisers and captains erupted into chaos, shoving and shrieking as if it would solve the problem. Thor glanced over to his friends: the Warrior Three and Sif. Fandral inconspicuously raised his finger over to his head before slowly circling his ear. Beside him, Volstagg snorted loudly, nodding in agreement. Hogun and Sif narrowed their eyes, somewhat unhappy about their reactions on such an important and news.

Truth be told, Thor wasn't sure what to think. A giant sea serpent, a thing not seen for many centuries had chosen to show itself. According to Heimdallr's description, the serpent was said to be big enough to swallow half of the human's flying fortress in one bite, and can wrap around it like a snake strangling a victim. Even more astounding is that the serpent is effortlessly destroying it, the human's green beast and ballistics useless against it.

Can the prophecies be true after all? Can the Elders final predictions be true?

If so, they are in deep, deep, trouble.

So bad that the world is supposed to end right there and then, a fact that Thor is not fond of, nor that of his kinsmen and friends.

The prophecy said that when Jörmungandr stirs (no one knows what it looks like, so...), an age of strife and war will surface. Monsters will break free of their chains, hatred and the worst will ignite in every man's heart, the worlds will shake and grind, the seas will flood the land while it was consumed by fire. On that day, all but a few Asgardians will survive, most dead and as will almost all other beings throughout the nine realms and more.

Understandably, no one actually wished it to happen, not even Loki would. That is unless he was so consumed with vengeance that he would sacrifice his life just to see everyone burn. What a disturbing thought.

But now, from what Heimdallr had said, the serpent —whatever it is— is attacking and demolishing their Midgardian allies with impunity. And while it was doing so, the Asgardians are busy arguing about petty prophecies, and Thor was disgusted by their actions.

Apparently, Odin was thinking in the same direction, "Enough with this mindless bickering. Heimdallr, take Thor back to Earth immediately. Thor, deal with the monster, and return later on when you declare your task complete. We can... debate about this once the more pressing matter of our allies attacked is resolved!"

Wasting no time, Thor bowed once before marching out of the hall with haste, joined by Heimdallr. He heard Sif tutted disappointedly, and smiled grimly at her display. He was not looking forward to the battle, not at all. Though, on a happier note, he will get to see Jane again, and _that, _Thor didn't mind.

Before he knew it, Heimdallr had alreadly activated the Bifrost, the swifling portal opening up. Heimdallr said in a grumbling voice, "Thor, do not linger. Slay the beast, get information and return. We need to know what we are facing against."

Thor smiled grimly back, swirling Mjolnir in his hands with expert grace, "I know that."

Heimdallr nodded and slammed his sword into the slot in the machine with both his hands, and in a flash of rainbows and sparks, Thor disappeared with a boom.

~TONY~

The boy got spunk, and he can personally be assured of that.

First, he did not call him _sir _as he should be on the phone, bowing and scraping like everyother engineer out there. Secondly, he knows his engineering. His test reports are more than out standing, with only one question wrong and thats apparently due to dilexia.

And third, he dared to hijack his files and suceeded, bypassing Jarvis like he wasn't even there.

He needed another upgrade, Tony decided.

When Tony landed on the platform of his manor, full rock music blasting and ozzing the smell of awesomeness, he was greeted not with bows and stuttering, but a girl. An exceptionally beautiful girl, that. Tony felt his playboy urges rising in him like smoke through a chimney, but he quickly put a lid on it. She was his assistent/apprentice's girlfriend who too was knowledgeable on her own, not a random reporter that he can one-shot with!

As the machines stripped away his armor, she said, "Tony?"

"No "Sir", no "Mister"?" Tony mused out loud, stepping off the platform.

"Pepper told us not to," the girl replied. What's her name again? Calypso? Unique name, and if he's not mistaken, it is a name of titaness that was marooned on a island. Tony wasn't too sure. The girl continued, "she said that it makes you feel old,"

"True enough," Tony said, "So, where is your fellow delinquent?"

"Down stairs, in the basement working on your spare projects?" she said. Tony felt that her voice carried a... tone that was strangely entrancing, its not like its seductive or trying to fish knowledge out of him or anything. Its just naturally... captivating. Not that she is not attractive, but that...

Calypso's voice snapped him out of his mental wandering, "He's downstairs, and he is somewhat preoccupied. I decided I should come up and greet you first before he irritates you to the point you want to blast his head off,"

"Hey! I heard that!" Leo's voice rang from the staircase, echoing up with a mix of laborious grunting. After a while, he flopped out into the living room, dragging a huge coil of wire behind him, all tangled up and heavy. He threw the coils at the wooden floor, before looking up at Tony like a deer in a headlight, apparently only noticing him there, "Oh. Hello?"

Tony raised an eyebrow at that, crossing his arms, adopting a fake scowling expression, "Hello, assistant. May I ask how you hacked my computer, call me when I was in a strictly _no wifi _environment, or more to say why didn't anyone stop you?"

"Umm..." the boy seemed taken back by this barrage of angry questions, stuttering a smile, "Ehh... What?"

Tony putted on a smile, his façade dropping away, "Nah, just joking. Though seriously, how? Even though I made it years ago, it still should be beyond your abilities. After all, I'm the genius."

"Well then..." the boy said uncertainly, "Before you start asking anything, I have to first to say, _I did not intentionally shut down Jarvis,_"

"So that is what happened! No wonder he didn't greet me" Tony exclaimed, clapping his hands together, "What exactly have you done to my home, to cause such rampant destruction? Are you trying to hijack my suits and wreak the world?"

The boy sulked guiltily, completely aware that Calypso was rolling her eyes, "Nope. I was just trying to get the computer to work, and then I found out that it was connected to Jarvis here. Well, I asked him _friendlily _to unlock the thing, but he refused. You know, I cannot resist, can't bear having a machine standing against me," At that, he waved his arms around helplessly.

Tony gave Calypso an 'are you serious' look, before turning back to the boy, "Where is Pepper? Your name is Leon, right?"

"Its Leo,"

"Same difference."

"She said she have to go to a meeting with a manufacturer" Calypso replied, glaring at Leo, who was trying to shrink down the stair well. When he think that no one noticed, he slunk away, back down the stairs surprisingly quietly.

"Oh. How unfortunate," Tony tut, "What is Leon here working on?"

"Body armor, heat-absorbing and self powering. You started working on it ages ago, but gave up instead and stuffed it in the files instead," Calypso replied, "You came in just after he started."

"So he priorities old projects above Jarvis? Which he broke?"

"He theorized that you can do it yourself, as a mutual test on each other," Calypso held up her hands innocently when Tony narrowed his eyes, "I'm just repeating what he said, since he can apparently hack Jarvis."

Stopping for a while, Tony reluctantly agreed, "Well yeah... But still, I'm his... Mentor! Honestly, do your 'boyfriend' think that he can challenge me?"

"I don't know," Calypso said, shrugging her shoulders, "He never ceased to amaze and annoy,"

"Nor do I," Tony countered, asking back, "How old are you again?"

She seemed to hesitate a moment, before saying, "its not polite to ask a woman her age. You should know very well yourself,"

Tony snorted, knowing very well with his... multiple relationships with different women he should know perfectly what to do and what not to do. Instead, he adopted an injured expression, clutching his chest dramatically, yelling, "OMP! That went straight into my heart. Ow, ow, _ow_."

"How unfortunate for you, Mr Stark," Calypso sad dryly and wearily, "If you don't mind, I would like to go back down to check on Leo. Hopefully he hadn't killed himself yet." With that, she turned away and walked down the stairs, leaving Tony to stare after her back.

Tony watched her leave forlornly, shaking his head in his failed attempt to approach her, before slapping himself for trying to seduce his own apprentice's girlfriend. He mused to himself, that normally woman seduce man, it was always the other way around for him, until he met Natasha who successfully beguiled him.

Those two are an odd couple. Tony couldn't place his finger on it yet, but he was pretty sure there was something up with those two suppose genius. Worth keeping an eye on.

His phone sudden rang out loud with his favorite ringtone, jazz music blaring out from the small device strapped to his bottom. He reached behind and fished the phone out from his too-tight but stylish jeans. The phone was one of a kind, the pinnacle of all modern communication device. It was both a small tablet that can unfold into a miniature computer complete with a keyboard, fold up into a small nugget that can fit inside his palm, or hang from his ear like a million dollar ear plug. It was filled with all kinds of functions, including self-explosion, a taser, a pen and a digital telescope, if he ever needed one. Or the best — tiny wheels that pop out from the bottom and allow the phone to speed itself across terrains. The...

With smile, he realized that he had been narrating the phone to himself in his mind instead of actually answering it. He tapped the answer button, noting with displeasure that the caller was his number-one blocked person — Fury. His pressed the phone to his ear, and nearly dropped it from the resounding crash and the immediate yell, "STARK GET YOUR SORRY ASS HERE NOW!"

Boy, he can never catch a break, can he?

~Fury~

He ducked as a table flew over his head, embedding itself in the wall behind him. Fury didn't glance back as the ceiling collapsed where he was three seconds earlier, his phone buried underneath tons of rubble and metal. That doesn't matter now, he had sent out the distress signal.

He hurried along the wall, keeping a low profile. Agent Hill had headed of to the bottom of the helicarrier reactivate the torpedoes that had been disconnected by the crash, hopefully doing some damage to the gargantuan that was swallowing the ship. Fury had no idea that whether she was alive or not, and honestly couldn't do a thing about it. Jarvis 2 had been attempting to buy them some time by firing tactical blasts from the cannons and missiles that were mounted on turrets, bullets and shells flying through the air and bouncing off, missiles exploding in the monster's face.

If he wasn't trying to escape with adrenaline coursing through his veins, or that he trained himself to focus on important matters that matter on the battlefield, he might had gone insane right there and then. To summarize, a snake the size of the Grand Canyon had apparently came alive and was wreaking them. If he hadn't saw stranger and more disastrous things before he might have attempted to shoot himself.

He hadn't been able to catch a proper look of the thing for himself yet except for a blurry glimpse in a camera, but he was pretty sure it was ugly as hell. All that he can make out was the prominent glowing angelfish-bait tat hung off its head, and every five minutes it emitted an EMP blast, shorting out most circuits again and again. The blue scales that cover its horrible visage had to be at least as hard as vibranium and thicker than a bus too be able to stand the pounding from a hulk without getting so much as a dent. The teethes in its mouth are all as long as a streetlight, all ending in a ridiculously sharp point and covered in seaweed, moss and other things Fury would rather not know. On its scalp, six beady eyes were hidden under bony ridges that cover the brows.

A classical horror that would put the space whales in Manhattan to shame.

A giant explosion signaled that another missile had been launched, the resounding cry that came shortly after meant that Jarvis 2 once again managed to get a hit in its mouth. Suddenly, the entire Helicarrier lurched as the sea serpent beached itself onto it, sending the bottom half of the Helicarrier to fling into the air. Fury tumbled onto the wall as the gravitational direction shifted, shielding himself with his arms as he slammed into steel. Quinjets and unlatched torpedoes tumbled and mashed on top of each other, detonating and shattering.

With a massive screeching grind, the wall too disappeared, trapped in a cage of teethes the top half of the command center was sheared off. The serpent mashed it into a pulp with a few chomp, before swallowing it whole. With the sudden removal of the ceiling, Fury was left dangling on the edge of a broken wall, his sweaty hands desperately gripping onto a ledge. He stared at sea serpent in its full ugliness, the sea serpent stared back with all six eyes. It opened its mouth, revealing a multitude of barbed tongues, slithering out.

With a yell, Fury rolled onto his side as a massive pillar of pink flesh impaled the position he was seconds earlier, ripping a chunk of metal away. Fury dodged a few more times as the tongues lashed out again, ravaging what remained of the control center into pieces, pieces of concrete and rubbles crashing into the sea below or onto the Helicarrier itself. By this time, Fury had almost lost hope for everyone on his ship, anyone that fell during the initial crash.

A turret nearby swiveled and unleashed a barrage of grenades at the sea serpent's mouth, the magnetic pulse on it latching onto the tongues. Moments later, the small metal spheres imploded in a starburst of crimson and gold, pieces of meat splattering the ground, the sea serpent rear back with a scream of outrage and pain.

At the same time, a green fist punched through ground as the Hulk unearthed itself. With a roar, it launched himself at the exposed belly of the sea serpent, scaling up the scales in a flurry of swipes.

Shaking itself in annoyance, the massive colossus flung the green Hulk through the air again with impunity, even as it ripped a huge chunk of scale as it did so. As the Hulk flew through the air, the air hummed with static, the orb dangling on the scalp of the sea serpent glowed white with barely contained power, before a white hot bolt of lighting was unleashed, striking the Hulk midair. The Hulk was sent blasting across the cloudily sky, an incandescent trail followed the green as it achieved lift off, and Fury was left staring at the scene. It could've been comical if it wasn't so horrifying at the same time.

Jarvis 2 commented drearily over a broken soundbox, "_that was unfortunate"._

Wait, cloudy skies? The sky was very, very clear when the battle first started, the setting sun glinting beautifully on the waves. There is no way a storm can stir up that fast, unless something is up.

A sudden and ridiculous surge of hope rose through Fury as he glared at the monstrosity, who was now busying itself with the task of demolishing a turbine. Fury glanced at the funnel cloud building over the sea, the wind swirling the sea up into a tornado, a radiant silvery glow pulsating from the peak.

With a deafening sonic boom, Thor descended into orbit.

* * *

><p><strong>Hmm, just how much more evil can I be? <strong>

**Want to know what happens next? Hmm?**

**BTW, I can't believe this fic achieved like 60 reviews, and it hadn't even got 40K words yet. Thank you for supporting me, reviewing me and generally urging me to hurry up in getting my life back in order.**

**Voila!**


	9. A study of wreak

_Thor swung his arm up in a savage uppercut, Mjolnir arcing up in a flash. The blow connected with the softer scales of the sea serpent's under jaw, sending the massive head rearing back in pain and shock, a crater denting the hard scales, static sparking. Thor winced as green luminous blood leaked from the cracks within the plates, splattering his battered armor in a brilliant shade of grass._

_The sea serpent swung back, deadly intent and anger clear in its six eyes. It stretched its mouth wide open, its mutilated tongues splayed open. Thor dive aside as the sea serpent retched up a waterfall of acid, melting away what was left of the Helicarrier, the already sinking ruins sinking further below the sea, only the feeble and frantic beating of the turbines keeping the craft from disappearing under the waves._

_Thor brought Mjolnir down in a smashing motion, the weapon humming with power. Less then a second later, a stroke of lighting crashed down from the heaven, striking the beast's neck, snapping off a few spines._

Zeus looked at the sphere floating in his hall with some misgivings, frowning slightly at the other renegade false-god harnessing _his _power, stirring up the power of heaven with a bloody hammer and call himself a deity. With barely hidden contempt, he hissed at Poseidon, "Where is your blasted demigod of a son? This fellow here is getting out of hand, and I'm already hearing complains! From the nymphs, from the other gods!"

Poseidon fiddled with the dracon leather strap on his trident, scanning the seas with his godly presence. The sea answered his call, the waves shifting and all the marine lives suddenly alert. Within seconds, an image of Percy ridding his best marine friend — Rainbow the Hippocampus. They skimmed across the water top, the shark that was providing the image barely catching up with the duo.

Mentally dismissing the shark, Poseidon replied, "On his way,"

Zeus snorted haughtily, speaking in a sardonic voice, "Well if he takes any longer, every mortal on that ship would've died already and this rampant fellow with a hammer would have finished off Cetus for us!"

"And there I thought it was _your _idea to punish them!" Poseidon retorted.

Ares muttered, "Not complaining here..."

Before Zeus can give a proper snap back, Athena intervened, "Yes, punish them, but preferably there will be_ some_ survivors left to tell about it, and that Jackson will be the one to slay the beast. _Thats _the plan."_  
><em>

Zeus grab the opportunity, and said acidly, "_Exactly _the point _I'm _making. If you can spare us some thought, _try _to keep the mortals from drowning, oh _mighty_ brother."

Poseidon stood up from his chair in anger, "And now you've crossed the line—"

"As much as I enjoy sarcasm, my seat on Olympus and drunken brawls, " Dionysus burped, taking a sip from his goblet, "I think that we should focus on getting this done before going back to our daily madness."

"For once I agree with him," Apollo said, giving Artemis a look of '_are you joining in or not'._

Rolling her eyes, Artemis said, "Sitting here arguing about petty matters is not going help any one. We made the plan, and we should follow it through. And that means that you, Poseidon, have to behave,"

From the shadows, as if materializing from darkness, Hades whispered with an oily tone, startling everyone, 'I would hurry If I were you. Thanatos and I are going to have trouble dealing all the undead complain soon, and I _would _hate to add you to my to-do list."

Grumbling unhappily, disliking that the others Gods are ganging up on him, he clawed his fingers through his hair muttered, "Fine, fine. I'll do it." He set out his mental probes again, alerting the dolphins to start rescuing. Sighing internally, a part of his mind floated back to Percy, watching him as he progressed.

~TONY~

He wasn't sure that whether he should hate his life or love it.

Personally he would stick with 'love it!', but the fact that he was the world's baby sitter was getting on his nerves. Really, why was he always the one responsible to get rid of every occasional trouble that crossed mankind's way?

With Jarvis down, he had to rely on himself and traditional machines to get himself equipped. Without the constant and reassuring voice of Jarvis always by his side, he was getting a bit disconcerted. He often relied on having Jarvis to take care of most trivial matters, such as regular and automatic check ups on the suits, security, oils spill and the chances of an alien attack.

And the disturbing part is that non of the listed above was anywhere near the definition of trivial.

While in the helmet, he probed his satellite with his brainwaves, checking and cross referencing the last location of the Helicarrier. Disappointingly, the region was covered in dense cloud, so it was impossible to know what was actually happening back there and why Fury needed him back so urgently. But at least he got the location, through a mixture of good luck and good skill. The sky was getting increasingly cloudy as he proceeded further into the sea, the ocean currents getting stronger and the wind started to pick up until the moment rain started to pour down in layers.

Out of no where, a new and random voice exploded inside his helmet, _"YO TONY!", _almost causing Tony to firing a missile into the North Atlantic Ocean.

"Who the hell are you?" Tony hissed back, shaking his head in an effort to get the buzzing out.

_"IS THE VOLUME WORKING?— WAIT A MOMENT— Got it!" _the voice said, and Tony instantly recognized the voice.

"Leon! What in Fury's mother's name are you doing with my suits?"

"Dunno if you are hearing this or not—" Leon continued as if nothing happened, "I've connected my microphone here at the work shop with your suit— if you are listening please reply— never mind, the volume was on mute. What was it again?"

"I ask again, what are you doing with the _coms?" _Tony roared back.

"Oh that? I just wanted to ask where you kept the rheostats. You know, those auto adjusting ones you got on the adverts?"

Tony was not used to be on the receiving end of sassy talk, jokes or hidden insults, and have no idea whether to splutter in outrage or laugh.

He went for the first one, "You hacked my computers just to ask me a stupid question? Do you have any idea what you could've done?"

"Could've cause you suit to short circuit, but it didn't so it is not the point," Leon, purposefully ignoring Tony's angry tone.

Tony's genius brain quickly figured out the problem, and nearly scowled it out, "Fine, _Leo, _what the hell are you doing?"

Through the coms, Tony can almost hear the smile and the smugness, "Thats better, I _knew _you can pronounce my name"

"Just answer the question!"

"Just thought I would check up on you, since Jarvis was still rebooting, and that you never came downstairs to kill me."

"It was tempting, and it still is,"

Leo said smugly, "You know, I'm looking through your eyes, so now I'm thinking of being your Jarvis. Or strictly speaking, Leo."

"No, and thats end of the line. How on earth did you even get through the security?"

"Jarvis got a lot of interesting passwords stored," Leo gave a brief and vague response, of which Tony noted dully, "And why not? I can give you heads up of what ever's happening, you know. Like now, _imminent crash in three minutes,"_

Tony glance at his speed meter, and suddenly remembered that he had left the throttle full on, and would have crashed into the Helicarrier three hundred miles per hour if he had continued the conversation without thinking. With haste, he willed the power output to be smaller, the blazing blue trail he emitted fading back to a shimmering orange beneath his soles.

With a angry yet somewhat grateful, he hissed back, "So now you know all my passwords, and is now _controlling _my suit? Do you even know what that means? I barely know you, no more than an hour, and now you can delve into every secret I have!"

"As tempting as it was to know every dirty dark thing you ever done and ever tried to hide," Leo continued nonchalantly, "I would prefer to keep my innocence, and you are welcome."

"This is ridiculous."

"I know right? Calypso is yelling at me to leave you alone-"

"Please do."

"-And I was thinking, _wouldn't it be fun to mess up his day with helpful advices?"_

"Get out of my suit!"

"And that- HOLY HEPHAESTUS WHAT WAS THAT?"

"What?" Tony quizzed at this sudden change of words, focusing his mind back to flying other than cussing, and immediately stuttered his suit to a stoop, gasping and exclaiming out loud, "Holy #$# (censored for the vileness would be too much to handle)"

"Indeed..." Leo breathed, "If you are seeing what I'm seeing then this is not a bug, right?"

"No, its not," Tony whispered back, as if that would make a golden and red metal suit hovering above a raging sea any less obvious.

"Well damn," Leo whistled, "I'm glad I'm not you! And that I get to watch everything form your perspective! Wait, you _ are _saving those dudes from that monster thing right?"

"I wish I don't have to," Tony grumbled loudly as he veered his suit to the monster fighting in the wreckages, saying crossly, "really, look at that thunder dude Thor! He's beating the stuff out of the serpent, and doesn't need my help at all!"

"Where did that thing even came from?" Leo awed.

"No idea! And I would prefer to leave biology and monsters to Bruce Banner. I'm an engineer."

"You think a missile or two can solve the problem?"

"If a hammer can nail a worm down, why can't an explosion?" Tony reasoned. With a grim-ish amused voice he added, "Well, at least Fury finally have to pay for his own Helicarrier out of his budget as director. Last time I volunteered to pay, and it was a huge mistake. That engine alone caused more than a billion dollars. I might be filthy rich but really it took a huge chomp out my cash!"

"Friends and allies are there to be robbed," Leo mused, identical to what Tony thought earlier that day.

"Come to think about it if I didn't went back to meet you I might be dead already inside those ruins," Tony realized, relief and incredibility coursing through him, "What are the odds?"

"More than the chance of a sea serpent showing up," Leo huffed, "By the way, you should probably launch a flare. The monster is about to eat your buddy Thor,"

"What?— Oh," Tony hastily readied arm, and fired a bright spark of light straight at the sea serpent's eyes, exploding prettily and shockingly in a matrix of pink and green.

The sea serpent looked up in annoyance at the new trouble presented to him, momently distracted. Taking the opening, Thor leapt up from his lying position, summoning his hammer where he dropped it and nailed a piece of metal shard sticking out of the sea serpent's abdomen into its straight gullet, penetrating the hard scales for the first time. Green blood leaked and sprayed from the wound, the stomach acid of sea serpent gushing out, and the sea serpent screamed in pain.

"Ouch," Leo commented drearily.

"GOOD ONE, OH HAMMERED ONE!" Tony blared out from his microphone, his shoulder armor shifting as a barrage of mini-missiles poked their heads out under the metal plating. With a rushing sound, the missiles detached and sped their way at the sea serpent, their deceiving size containing an unusually large payload.

Within seconds, the missiles impacted, automatically aiming for the previous wounds. The resulting explosions were tremendous, each one large enough to level a good sized house. Armor plates cracked and scales fell off in flaming layers, burning up with the magnesium spilled from the missiles. One missile, however, made it into the frills, where interlocking layers of softer flesh covered the opening. As the payload erupted, the side of the sea serpent's neck literally disappeared as a geyser of luminous blood sprayed high into the air. The sea serpent collapsed on its side, the waves crashing over everything as rain continued to wash down in droves, the fire reduced to ember as water flooded on top.

"AND GOOD DAY TO YOU TOO, STARK!" Thor roared back, clutching his side with one hand where a luck strike had graze him deeply, though his inhuman healing and pain tolerance had long started to dispel the nuisance.

"Great hit! Right through the neck! Did you sea the flames through the nostrils?" Leo hollered over the com, making loud whooping noises made Tony wince.

Yelling back and ignoring his annoying 'assistant', "FIND FURY, TALK LATER!"

The Helicarrier was a sad and pitiful sight, the once majestic craft reduced to scrap barely holding on to each other and miraculously floating in relatively one piece, the rising storm threatening to rip the remains to pieces. Amidst the wreckage, the control tower was unrecognizable, barely a quarter of its original size. Mangled Quinjets and other vehicles littered the area like frostings on a morbid donut, tangled up in wires. Tony had no idea if the survivors, if any survived at all will be under all the rubble. From all the readings and alerts he had set up, SHIELD support from the Manhattan Base should be arriving soon, in around ten minutes, which was more then enough for all the survivors to be de-survived.

Hissing to himself, the sensors in his mask scanned the area, the computers and his mind processing every detail, every heat signature, every imbalance in the air, every disturbance in water. At the same time, from his right bicep, a swarm of nanobots detached from the armor, spreading through out the area conducting the same investigation. Within moments, he found Fury among a handful of other survivors.

The man was climbing the ladders deep inside the ruins, scrambling up to avoid sinking beneath. Reaching the top, he waved at Tony franticly, yelling something illegible that was immediately lost over the wind. He gave up seconds later, and pointed toward the sea crazily.

Tony moved over and held out his hand for Fury to hold up onto, "ROUGH DAY HUH? BOSS?"

Fury, however, didn't accept, and his face was still a mask of panic. Oh no, Tony thought. Fury yell back, and this time Tony can hear his voice, "Its still alive, its below us—"

He was cut short as a massive grey head bursted forth from the middle of the battered Helicarrier, the remaining concrete and steel strips that bind the ship together snapped as spines ripped through them, a sound so loud that Tony was deafened. A giant surge of water accompanied the head, the sea bubbling up like a geyser, buffering the Helicarrier as it splintered into shards. The spluttering engines that worked so hard to power the ship failed as water entered its chamber, the final lights snuffed out, leaving the bait on the sea serpents head and Tony's suit the only light source left.

Along with that, what remained of the explosives on the craft chose that moment to detonate, lighting the wreak up like a christmas tree gone wrong and one happened to be a gas tank next to Thor. Tony watched in horror as a burst of flame enveloped the asgardian, who was swiftly blasted out of the flames by the explosion, crashing into a room that Tony presumed to be the computer rooms that had made it to the surface by one's means or another. Tony winced slightly at the sound of machines getting crushed, the monitors splitting and wireframes bending. That got to hurt.

Fury, threw a chunk of concrete at Tony to catch his attention, "What are you still looking for? Shoot the damn thing!"

Tony narrowed his eyes and gathered his senses, facing the sea serpent once more. That thing looked angry, very angry indeed, along with an all-time ugly. Its already morbid visage was now marred even more, half of its giant face was charred and burnt, green and raw where the scales fell off, cracked and seeping where fire left its mark, all the eyes on that side unblinking. The teeth were half broken, most of them by the hulk, more by Thor and the rest blown out from within by Tony. The bulbous orb dangling from its forehead had lost most of its luminousness, and was hanging at an odd angle like a battered chandelier.

As pathetic as it looked right now, it still looked very murderous, as if Tony burned his entire family at home and ate his kids for breakfast.

Tony started with a repulser blast from his palm, aiming for the remaining eyes. It didn't deal much damage through the hard chitin covering the lenses, but it blinded the sea serpent, which earned him a few precious seconds.

While the sea serpent was incapacitated for the moment, Tony flew as stealthily as possible for a machine around the head, clinging on to the back of the sea serpent. Tony theorized that through the amount of dead chitin covering the sea serpent, it will never feel him clambering on it.

"Don't mind me," Tony hummed softly as he readied his gauntlets, each shimmering now. Slamming his palm onto the scales. A deep thumping sound resounded as small wormlike machine ejected from his forearm, burrowing its driller head into the chitin. With a sucking plop, the machine vanished into the hole it created.

"What was that for?" Leo asked over the com, quiet for quite a while already, somewhat shocked, perhaps.

"Hmm, hmm hmm," Tony mumbled as he launched himself further up the back of the sea serpent, who was completely oblivious as Tony made his way through the forest of spines at the back. He reached the apex of the neck, just behind the neck where crimson colored plates jutted out. With another thump, a metal worm buried itself into the chitin.

Tony detached himself from the plates, flew and crashed hard onto the head of the sea serpent, the thrusters on his shoulder aided him with extra propulsion to stomp on the bone. The impact was surprisingly hard for a man sized suit, capable of affecting the gargantuan body of the sea serpent, giving it a shock as chitin split and cracked, the force echoing down into its brain.

The sea serpent reared back his head, giving a shrill scream as it tried to fling Tony from its head, now having located him. Tony leapt and hovered in front of the sea serpent mockingly, sending a small blast its way, yelling, "YA WANT SOME OF THIS?"

Tony's helmets's monitor shifted, a small flashing red '_ready' _blinking repeatedly. Tony smiled grimly, and activated his controls. Within seconds, the back of the sea serpent's back suddenly erupted, flaming debris flew through the air as if a small volcano blew up right there and then. For the past minute or so, the metal worms had been drilling though the plates, the tail detaching in parts, leaving them behind in the tunnels they created. When the control was triggered, the parts will automatically blow up _inside _the target, whether it was a building, craft or robot, like a metallic parasite.

Tony felt no emotions but triumph as he neatly flayed the entire back off the sea serpent. As brutal and bloody his skills were, this beast deserved no mercy. Who knows, how many people were trapped inside the sinking ruins, how many precious data had been ruined, the mighty organization it had brought down to its knees? Tony can faintly hear Leo belching at the sight of green blood showering the them, tinging the sea alight, flesh splattering onto the wreckage with sickly thuds.

The sea sea serpent swayed under the devastating attack, but did not fall over its side, which greatly surprised Tony. It glared at Tony with hatred clear its its six eyes, blood boiling out from its back. It opened its mouth wide, the sharp teeth showing it its full monstrous glory, letting out a roar of challenge that chilled Tony to the bone.

Wait a moment, six eyes, sharp teeth? Didn't the face explosion it took wiped those off only minutes ago? How— No, no way. Now way it can regenerate that fast, not a chance. Its not possible!

Tony refused to believe that all the work the avenger team tried to inflict onto the sea serpent was nothing but a minor setback.

The dangling orb, now fixed right on its head, flashed white once, blinding the whole world for a moment. Tony felt all the wires in his suit fried and curled up as EMP ripped through them, the monitors shutting off as all the power left.

Tony plummeted to the ruins heaving on the waves below, still unbelieving as he slammed onto concrete.

* * *

><p><strong>MUHAHAHAHAHA<strong>

**HAHAHA**

**HAHA**

**HA**

**Ha?**

**OKAY I'M EVIL, BUT I PROMISE PERCY IS GOING TO SHOW UP ON THE NEXT CHAPTER.**

**THE AVENGERS ARE IN SERIOUS TROUBLE NOW, THE HELICARRIER IN PIECES, MOST OF THEIR HEROS INCAPACITATED, AND CETUS STILL AT LARGE, THE MORTAL WEAPONS FAILING TO PERMANENTLY HARM IT.**

**WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN NEXT?**

**WILL ANYONE SURVIVE? HOW WILL THEY REACT?**

**WAIT FOR THE NEXT CHAPTER THEN PEOPLE! THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR SUPPORT, AND DON'T FORGET TO REVIEW!**


	10. WAR

Percy was in trouble. He was suppose to arrive at the scene like an hour ago, but then on his way some monster shark dudes decided that he looked like a tasty godly snack and apparently worth trying their luck. Percy was glad to disappoint them the sharp way. Seriously though, even it was in the middle of the ocean where wifi was beyond terrible, or that the monsters have a brain the size of a thimble — it still wasn't probable that they hadn't got the gist yet. Is it really that hard to know that messing with a certain son of Poseidon known as Percy Jackson is really bad idea?

This is ridiculous, and he was worried. He had no idea what was going to with Cetus, and since he was late, he didn't even know if there were anyone left to save at all. It was dark now, the sky covered with stormy clouds and the waves heaving larger and larger every moment. To most, being alone in the sea like that on a crazy ride would have freaked them out, according to Annabeth anyway. But to Percy, it was nothing more than natural. At sea was one of the times that he felt absolutely at power, having control over everything there is in the sea. But then, from Chrysaor he learned that there is always a bigger fish than you, and that was a lesson that Percy learned well.

As he progressed over the waves with Rainbow, the waves surged even higher, sizes of apartments going up and down. The sky poured down as if a valve had been left open untended, lightning flashed now and then. Even though rain was flying, shadows dancing, Percy could still see clearly through the chaos, and the deafening roar of the sea muted, dampened to his ears. This was his domain, he revels in storms, and he knows that it gives him strength.

As he plowed through another wave, a giant piece of rubble surfing on the surface of the water suddenly blew past him with a deadly _whoosh!, _almost knocking him off Rainbow. Percy snapped his head back just to see the piece submerge again. Holy Poseidon, where did _that _came from?

Percy gripped tighter on Rainbow's mane, swiveling left and right to avoid getting bashed to gooey little bits of Percy paste by flying steel pipes and random plane engines.

Judging from the viarity of wreckage coming his way, he could see the the Helicarrier, or the _Mortal_ _Fortress, _as Hecate called it, took quite a beating.

And that was an understatement. Percy himself had only seen it once on the _Quinjet, _as Hecate called it, briefly. He didn't exactly memorized what it look liked, but he was sure that it was intact instead of like lego pieces tossed into the ocean, and certainly there shouldn't be a flaming Cetus in the middle of the mess like a crazy Jack-in-a-box. Percy was frankly shocked that the Helicarrier he saw earlier had been brought down to such a state. It had seemed indestructible then. Somewhere deep in his mind, he could dimly heard Hecate snort.

And by the gods that is one big, _ugly green _sea serpent. He had read the stories, and that supposedly it was as large as a mountain, according to many texts and Annabeth, but he never thought they would be true. Until now, seeing it before his own eyes.

Percy and Rainbow submerged under the water to avoid detection, though the currents under was just as bad as above. Percy whispered to Rainbow, ducking as a steel pipe flew over his head, "time to split up, mate."

Rainbow neighed softly back, before doing an underwater front flip, launching Percy off its back. When he finished the flip facing where he came from, Rainbow righted himself and swam away, giving a backward glance.

Percy waved once back at Rainbow before starting to swim, the currents answering his call, jetting him forward at a ridiculous speed. The water was too dark for anything to be seen, yet he could sense where everything and everyone is. The waters here were emptied of all fishes, and that was expected. Poseidon would never leave his subjects to be ravaged by a rampant monster. Percy wondered whether if Delphin would be around, commanding the dolphins or other merman to help out the survivors. As soon as he thought about that, he immediately felt the life force of three other large fishy speeding along side him, homing in. He instinctively knew that these incoming creatures were not monsters, but definitely mythical and that they were not hostile. He had no idea how he knew that. Maybe its one of the freaky Poseidon abilities or something, Percy can never be sure about these, one popping up every now and then.

Suddenly, one of them that was flanking him suddenly moved closer until it was next to him. Percy didn't bother to look sideways, knowing that it would be pointless. Instead, he reached out with his mind, feeling as if the water was part of him, filling his essence into the sea. Judging from the residue he received back, he was pleased that it was a merman, someone that he could communicate properly. Through his mind, he sent out the message to his new companion, _"who are you?"_

He received a reply instantly, albeit it was slightly displeased, _"My name would be Beromith, and it would not be your concern, Jackson. We were expecting you, and you were late,"__  
><em>

Percy answered back unhappily, _"Monster attack, of course. What can you expect? Anyway, what is the situation now?"_

Beromith adopted a more formal and serious tone when business was now at hand, or flappers, _"The mermen and Naiads were rescuing the survivors. There were plenty of them, which would be lucky of you. We were attempting to use magic to keep the fragments together in the storm stirred up by the duo on the craft, so I would advice you to use as few hurricanes as possible. You are on a time schedule, Percy. The mortals would be arriving soon, and should they catch you in action... it would not be pretty."_

Percy grunted, focusing his mind onto the monolith he was charged to take down, asking, _"Any insight in taking that down?" _with his powers, he could feel the size of Cetus under water, extending all the down into the depths where Percy actually lost the touch with the end of the tail. It was truly massive.

_"Despite all odds the mortals had managed to wound it, how ever they would soon fade due to their weapons are not for killing immortals. I would advice going for the old injuries while it was still weakened, or you can remove its major weapon — the dangling bait first. Your choice."_

Percy remembered his specific orders. He was to convince the mortals that there would be an immense price in trying to contact his kind, and that he should put on a show. Percy wasn't too sure about that, yet Athena had engineered the plan, so it would be impossible to counter anything the goddess had to say.

He nodded briefly, before jetting himself again, bursting through the water like a torpedo. As soon as he left the water, he could see just how huge the monster he was trying to slay. It's literally trying to kill a mountain with a sword. Improbable, not impossible though, and Percy was particularly good at doing crazy things, so he wasn't all that concerned.

Jetting onto the back of the sea serpent with a blast of current, the burned flesh making a sickly squishing noise under his trainers as he landed on it, he stabbed his blade into the meat, avoiding the still billowing flames to stable himself.

The effect was instantaneous. How ever small the wound was, the celestial bronze was still very very painful. It wouldn't really hurt a monster of such a giant scale, but it would still be equivalent as coating a needle with vinegar before stabbing it down onto a swollen pimple. It hurts a lot, so don't try it. The sea serpent reared back, surprised at the sudden howling pain in his side, however small it was. He never felt that kind of pain before, no once in its thousands-year-old life.

Percy didn't stay still for long, however. He quickly climbed up the back of the monster. He never paid to much attention to the rock wall at camp, with its lava and clamps. Right now, he was thankful for it, allowing him to climb up at a speed that would make any free runner proud. The celestial bronze cut would stop its regeneration for a short time. Not that long, but long enough for Percy to do even more damage.

As soon as he reached the 'neck', the part where the scales grew again and was no longer bloody raw, he stabbed his sword into a particularly nasty looking boil. Before Cetus can react, he leapt off the flesh, sliding down the back like a very wet and dangerous water slide. As he slid down, he dragged his sword behind him, Riptide cleaving through the monster meat without problem, cutting a huge fifty meter golden slice straight down.

Cetus roared in pain, his entire body convulsing, trying to shake off this unknown assailant that was causing him such agony. He attempted to slide back down into the water, trying to escape, but found out that he could not move a single inch down, as if there was something blocking his way to his home. He tried to lunge out of water into the sea again, but was to no avail. He was stuck like he was in cement, and he immediately found out why.

The sea waves, the water, they had stopped moving. It still looked like water, but it was as if it was frozen in a photograph, not like ice, but completely unnatural, impassable. Cetus screamed in rage and fear, his mind cloudy. He began to thrash around, lunging and tearing. His bulb flashed once, a massive blast of lighting blasting at the sea, and it proved as effective as trying break cement with eggs.

Percy winced as the monster's screams tormented his ear. It was not just ear splitting. The amount of pain, fear, and anger in it was overwhelming, and Percy wished nothing more but to end it prematurely.

He left his sword in the wound, and instead of falling back into the sea, he swung himself back us slightly using the momentum of the sea serpent, knowing that his sword would appear in his pocket again. He once again climbed the huge body, but this time on Cetus belly, where intersecting plates protected its vital organs. Over the ages corals had begun to grow on its surface, littered with fist-sized pores that kept spewing out water. Wisely, Percy continued climbing, but he could already feel the strain on his muscles. The storm too had begun to lessen, now that Percy had drained the storm's energy to power himself, the rain was simply rain once more instead of bullets hitting .

Grunting, he managed to reach the 'neck' once more, and even crawled on top of its head. The sea serpent was still blessedly oblivious to his presence, preoccupied with its task of looking at its mutilated back. Who said size ever mattered?

Grunting with every jolt, Percy gripped the sea weed growing on Cetus' head tightly, inching forward at the bace of the bulb dangling over head. It was glowing an auroral blue, shimmering with slime covering it. Percy squinted as he made his way forward, rain battering his face but didn't mind it. As with all storms, water revives him. He didn't want to touch that bulbous orb-thing that can blast electricity, but he didn't have much options. He needed to get rid of that thing.

With a yell, he sank his blade into the pillar that was holding the bulb up and dragged his blade sideway in a large horizontal cut. If it was normal mortal cut, even if you thrust it entirely into the pillar, it wouldn't even go halfway. But with celestial bronze, it literally ate way at the essence of the monster, the wound shining gold and boiling away. Grunting, Percy managed to get Riptide out.

The pillar wavered for a moment, then settled as if it finished shaking, glowing brighter and brighter as it lost control, bulging in size dangerously.

Oh no, Percy thought as the bulb exploded in a star burst of bright blue.

~TONY~

He opened his eyes, and was surprised that he was still in his suit. He could hear the back up power of the suit struggling to drive the EMP out of its systems. He groggily pushed himself into a sitting position, his brain hammering, sparks dance across his eyes. The floor was wet, and the screen on his helmet was blurry and cracked. With the rain splattering on top, he could see no more than a grey smudge.

The message on his screen flickered weakly, the blue letters shimmering in and out of existence. On the corner of his eye, a shaky figure was waving his arms franticly, mouth opening and closing in a near silent yell. Tony slowly recognized him as Leo, his voice beginning to be legible as his head cleared.

"Tony!... Can you hear me?... You have to get up, now," Leo yelled over the static, his voice tinny and muffled, and stopped entirely with a _crack!_

Tony groaned as a headache crashed into his brain when he attempted to stand up, swaying dangerously over the edge he was lying against. He reached out his hand for support, and was forced to splice his mask open when he puked all over the place, his stomach squishing everything out.

When he was done and his sanity returned, he closed his mask once more. He immediately ran several back up power grids of his suit, fixing the system crashes that was the result of sudden shut down. The audio returned, and the power level on his suit stopped fluxing. He swiveled around, and found himself standing on a piece of floating debris. He was confused for a moment, his brain not comprehending what he was seeing.

And then the horror hit him.

He was standing on what remained of the Helicarrier, around him several other pieces of the wreck bobbling over the waves.

How did get here? He struggled to get a grip on what happened. His head feel bloated, and he was sure that he must had slammed his head somewhere, judging by the amount of confusion going through his brain, and it might need a weeks of rest before—

Focus!

Tony shook his head, and looked up at the sky, noting that the rain had decreased with a detached part of his brain. The sea serpent was still there, still on fire and still very much angry. Its back was an angry shade of red, slimy and bloody, lit alight with fire.

Wait a moment, was that a golden line running through? Or was it just a figment of his demented imagination?

He tried to take flight, but as soon as he left the ground vertigo hit him like a truck, his balance flying out the window. He tumbled pathetically onto another piece of debris, his heart and brain both pounding like crazy, his stomach threatening to overspill again.

He glared up once more at the serpent, anger now coursing through his veins. No, he will not be defeated by an oversized fish. No, he will not allow this monster to kill the people he worked with for so long. This definitely is _not _his best day as Tony Stark.

Suddenly, the bait that was hanging over the sea serpent's head started to glow brightly, seemingly falling off. Was that a humanoid Tony saw running on its scalp? Puzzlement ran through his mind again, and _then _the bulb chose to explode.

Tony violently turned his head away instinctively as a giant flash that would make lightnings cower in shame blinded his eyes, his mask failing to filter the excess light. He stumbled backward, his feet got snared in a pile of wires, causing him to land on his rear with a bump. Once again, _not _his best day.

He blinked rapidly, panicking slightly as only darkness met his eyes for a few seconds, letting out a deep sigh as vision slowly return back to his paralyzed form. For the countless time today, he struggled to get to his feet again, lamely if he would dare to describe himself now.

The colors in front of his eyes were messy, dotted with black static. The coms, the visuals on his mask were invisible to him, the green fading and appearing randomly as his eyes attempted to fight off the latest light assault.

The sea serpent was still there. The bulb was gone, and it looked like it brought away quite a bit of skin too, exposing the skull gruesomely. Just another reason that Tony hated having to battle giant creatures that can look as pathetic and bloody as _that _without dying. Next time if he was going to fight something like that, he should have prepared a giant suit for it too.

He walked forward slowly, painfully aware of the amount agony every step took him. He found that the palms of his suit was damaged, the repulsers dim and broken. No wonder he couldn't fly then.

His mind wandered back to the more important topic, and that was what to do now. The missile pads on his shoulders are still functional, but what good would it be when the targeting systems were down?

An ear splitting crash caught his attention. He looked over, now that his vision that had returned to normal. The sea serpent appeared to trying to bite down at something in the sea. The massive head crashed down on to the waves, but was instantly rebuffed in a flash of light, golden blood leaked from the side of its jaw.

By then, Tony was utterly perplexed and gave up on trying to make sense of what he was seeing. He was pretty sure blood wasn't golden, and that he had no idea what happened to cause the injury, if it was an injury at all.

He found his eyes drawn to a small humanoid figure standing in the sea, another thing that Tony had no idea if it was real or not. The figure appeared to be yelling at the sea serpent, and his is arms, glinting — is that a _sword?_

The figure then proceeded to throw his weapon away, just like that, much to Tony's shock.

The figure then dropped to his knees, and for a moment Tony thought he had been injured somehow. No, he was wrong and he knew it when the figure stood up now, and raised his arms from the ground as if he was lift a thousand pound weight.

As his arms raised above his waist, two colossal water pillar exploded on either side of him, and on closer observation they seemed to be _arms! _The figure grappled at nothing, but the giant water hands mimicked his actions. The left hand reached out and grabbed the sea serpent around the throat, fitting around like a water lasso, clenching shut

The figure reached to the side of his legs, withdrew something, and suddenly _pop! _A sword popped out. Tony watched in awe as a shimmering blade grew out of the right hand of the water figures.

The humanoid's hand flicked once, and so did the water hands, arcing through the sky in a deadly swipe into the open maw of the sea serpent.

The sea serpent blew apart into golden dust, and Tony's mind gave in to darkness, collapsing where he was standing.

* * *

><p><strong>HAPPY NEW YEAR PEOPLE<strong>

**SORRY FOR THE LATE UPDATES, I GOT EXAMS : (**

**WHAT EVER, ENJOY THE HOLIDAYS!**


	11. What's going on?

The world was crazy, and the Avengers would admit that they were responsible of causing it to be as crazy as it was. Their group alone was mind-blowing enough. It was composed of a green rage beast, billionaire genius in a suit of flying armor, an alien that uses a super hammer who was thought to be the Nordic gods thousands of years ago, a genetically enhanced human soldier that lived a century ago, a super spy and her interesting partner the super agent.

Along with the fact that they work for a super spy agency and their base was a flying mother ship. Totally inconspicuous.

Bruce Banner had long gotten used to all kind of impossibilities, craziness and strangeness. Aliens? Check. Psychos? Check. Super humans? Definitely. All three of them on the same person? His everyday nightmare.

But when he woke up two days later with no recollection of what happened before he blacked out, only to be notified that his lab was destroyed along with the rest of the Helicarrier by a raging serpent, that pushed the limits.

Dressed in a hospital gown and slippers, he pushed himself off the cot he was lying in, telling the doctors nearby that he was absolutely fine despite everything in front of his eyes were blurry. He shuffled past the open doors, and asked the nearest nurse where was right now.

She answered with concern, "Sir, you are currently in the New York SHIELD head quarters. Please return to your room... We still have a few more health tests..."

Bruce was no longer listening at that point, he blinked his eyes, and suddenly remembered that he too had woken up yesterday, made it to the conference room and found Fury before collapsing again. Wincing slightly at the slight headache he was experiencing, he asked the nurse gingerly for a set of clothes.

Frowning slightly, the nurse left and returned minutes later with a set of freshly folded shirt, jeans and boxers.

Thanking her, not bothering to be embarrassed since he was probably 'retrieved' naked anyway for god knows how many times, he went into the nearest toilet and changed himself. He washed his face to clear his head for good measure before walking out again, refreshed.

He passed by countless other unknown doctors, passing through many other curtained sickrooms with agents and officers under care. Judging from their pale and bloated expressions, they must have been the crew working on the Helicarrier when the accident happened.

Looking away, he continued to make his way to the conference room, retrieving his clearance card on the way. When he barged into the conference room, he was greeted with the sight of Fury walking around, his left arm in a sling and a white bandage wrapped around his permanent scowling face. On the side, his limbs sporting many bruises, was Tony twiddling on his phone through a pair of bruised eyes. Captain America himself was busying himself with reading files, reading the same paper over and over again with his trade mark frown. Agent Barton had somehow climbed up onto the pillars that held the concrete ceiling up with nothing but a piece of rope, covered in shadows in this dim and windowless room where Natasha was glaring at him from below. Bruce was surprised to see Thor here too, not remembering that he was there at the battle, and even more surprised to see in not in armor but in human clothes that seemed a few sizes too small.

Tony was the first to notice him, shoving his phone back into his jeans after folding it up. He stood up from his chair and snatched up one of the many folders that littered the big oval table in the middle of the room, scratching his head he said, "Well, he is here now."

Other members too turned and looked at him for a second, and Barton slid down from the roof silently. Bruce rubbed his face and sat down, placing his hands on the table, "Alright. I'm awake. Anyone mind telling me what exactly happened? The Hulk got zero memories."

Fury raised his single functioning eyebrow up, remembering everything that happened a day ago perfectly. Tony shook his head, opting to be the one to speak, "Giant eel attack."

Bruce gave him a _seriously _look, "Details? Where are we, and why are we here? Last I checked we were on the Helicarrier, and then _something_ crashed..."

Tony repeated, "Eel attack," and added almost as an afterthought, "That blasts lighting from its bait, and the size of the Grand Canyon."

Thor seemed to be considering punching Tony on his bruises, his expression annoyed, and said, "Doctor Banner, I wouldn't expect you to remember. It was a sea serpent, and the reason we are here, is because your flying fortress was destroyed."

Bruce blinked, no really sure if he heard it right, "Did you just say, _destroyed?_ We _are _talking about the Helicarrier, right?"

"Yes. Destroyed, obliterated, _annihilated. _Choose your version," Fury said with a scowl, "_That _is why we are here, now, under Manhattan."

Bruce stored that information away in his brain. He had never been in the proper New York SHIELD base before, and it would be beneficial to know where he can get allies... or stay away from. No wonder New York was flooding with SHIELD agents. They probably got underground rabbit holes everywhere, meaning that agents can pop up anywhere when emergencies call for it. At least, _if _it was that large.

"How do you know I would automatically come over here, to this room, then?"

"Where else would we be?" Natasha asked, "We all know the protocols, find the director, mission complete."

"Fair enough. But, if my instincts can amount to anything at all, I believe that there is something more than the Helicarrier destroyed and our asses handed over by a _fish, _right?"

"Yes, Doctor Banner. Your instincts would be correct. The important and strange thing here, is that we did not defeat the monster." Fury said with out stopping, not hiding anything.

"Who did, then? How many died?" Banner asked, intrigued yet at the same time tired, a sadly familiar sensation of the sunken feeling settling in his heart. He didn't want to get dragged into another giant war, against monsters, aliens or whatnot. He was a scientist, not a soldier. Scientists do not go charging into the fray as a green rage beast as a rule.

"We do not know. We were still scavenging the wreckage, but at least when the rescue team came, there was an astounding amount of survivors," Fury deadpanned, continuing after a few seconds of shocked silence, "Though, our friend here, Tony Stark, had captured some interesting footage of what happened."

Tony nodded, wincing slightly as he moved his injured arms and mouth, "Yes. Yes. Very, very peculiar." He tapped his phone a few times, placing it at the center of the table, "I was there fighting the damn eel. After everyone got wasted by the fish, this happened. Unfortunately the mic was damaged, so there will be no sound..."

He snapped his fingers, and instantly the monitors that made up the surface of the oval table flickered on. Several plasma projections shone into the air, showing a blank loading screen. It quickly changed into a blurry image of a raging sea, waves and rain.

"I took this with the camera on my suit," Tony explained, "It got a bit blurry in the rain and the lenses cracked, so it would't be pristine, but that shouldn't bother us too much."

The video started playing, and Tony sat down onto a chair, hands placed behind his head. At first the video was a footage of Tony flying around the area, going into the storm and to the Helicarrier. Tony pressed a few buttons on his miracle phone, fast forwarding the video.

The Avengers watched as a series of images danced through the projections. Both Bruce and Thor winced as they saw their relative selfs got taken out of commission, one golfed through the sky and the other crashing into a room of computers that promptly blew up.

They got a few more minutes of random footage such as explosions, giant teethes and rain be for the video suddenly stuttered and stopped, frozen. Tony raised up his hand at everyone's quizzing stares, "That's when I got blasted with EMP. I dropped out of the sky and crashed." With that, he fast forward the video again, which quickly changed the black screen back to normal, albeit with even more grime covering it.

Bruce asked as the video continued to play forward, "What happened to the sea serpent at the end? Did we kill it or what?"

"No," Tony said curtly, swiping the screen on his phone, "We didn't kill it. Someone else did it for us."

"Explain," Agent Barton demanded impatiently, crossing his arms, while Agent Romanoff looked at him with a frown.

"Just watch," Tony video sped up to a blur, Tony tapping away, muttering something about Jarvis, or someone called Leo. Suddenly, he exclaimed, "Tah dah! Got it!"

He tapped once more on his phone, and set it back onto the table.

The video froze, and abruptly changed into a scene of Tony stumbling, his eventual barfing everywhere. No one looked away. As past-Tony looked up, he got a perfect view of the mass of the sea serpent. This was the first proper shot of the sea serpent. Almost everyone else that hadn't been there at the battle gasped, including Bruce.

It was _colossus_! It was as if a mountain decided to wake and start killing everyone. The horrible visage loomed over the sky like a dome, a sickly glowing green against the black sky and the rain. The mouth itself could easily fit the head of the Helicarrier in it, those teethes, gigantic pillars of ivory stained with red rust and green seaweed. It was facing away from Tony, of which he would be grateful of.

And it seemed severely injured. The bait that was mentioned earlier and was seen blasting himself away was gone, a golden blooded stump where it once stood, leaking shining liquid from the wound. Bruce frowned slightly, and asked out loud, "Golden blood? Wasn't it green earlier?"

Suddenly, the massive head reared back and launched itself at the sea, at something that Bruce wasn't sure he was hallucinating or not. Tony froze the screen in time and magnified the image.

It was a boy. That was holding a bronze sword standing in the sea. Everyone in the roomed blinked in surprise, muttering to themselves in a worried tone.

Rogers exclaimed out loud, "What the? Is that _a boy _that I'm seeing?"

"Nope. No illusions. I saw him myself," Tony said, continuing the video, "You know, we've all seen some pretty crazy stuff in our lives, but I'm pretty sure _this _is going to shock you."

The massive jaw descended onto the boy, but in flash of golden flash, the head bounced off the boy as if there was an invisible wall, a shock wave blasting the surrounding water away. The camera bobbled as the wave hit Past-Tony, momentally losing sight of the boy. The view swished to the sky, and...

There was massive watery pillar strangling the sea serpent. Tony froze the screen again, silence dawned in the room, with only the air-con that seemed all together too loud at that time.

"Ahem..." Rodgers choked out, "Is that boy, the source of..."

"I believe so, yes," Tony answered.

"Who is he? Do we have any links?" Natasha asked, placing her hand on the table.

"No one here recognized him?" Nick sighed, "We all saw him less than a week ago."

A few seconds later, Bruce exclaim incredulously, "PERCY JACKSON?"

"Yes," Fury simply said, with a pause, he continued, "Code Red, people. Find him, and bring him back. Even if the Helicarrier is down doesn't mean we get holidays."

~ANNABETH~

_This is ridiculous, _part of Annabeth thought as she dully pointed a new camper to his assorted cabin. The camper had only arrived days ago, carried in unconscious by a satyr. He was still going through the stages of shock of knowing that he was a half god, and before that he was a bottom-scraper at a school in Mexico.

After the boy went on his way with a hand full of arrows, Annabeth sighed and started walking to the big house, squinting against the midday sun. The road was pebbled with stones, contrasting to the grass fields that covered the hills. Around her, the campers were doing their daily activities, most blessedly oblivious to whatever the gods were up to.

The odds of a single demigod getting involved multiple global conflicts without getting killed along the way was more than rare.

It doesn't bode well for anyone.

She didn't realize she had arrived at the Big House until her foot slammed against the stairs, her mind having wondered off in her sea of thoughts. She looked up at the door, which suddenly seemed so foreboding. She knocked on the door once, taking a deep breath, she stepped in. She grimaced at the decor, where it still looked the same as she had last seen it.

Horrible. Apparently the stuff Dionysus left was still here, and that even after Olympus had opened up again he elected not to come back to the camp, and just as obvious no one cared, save the dryads and the satyrs.

Vines ran down the walls, the air was still horribly steamy and have a distinctive alcoholic odor to it. The wooden floor was covered in a lush leopard carpet, surrounded with an assortment of sofas and tables, a fan rotating on the ceiling where sunlight streamed in through windows. The wooden was painted in a haphazard of mustard and purple. Seymour the leopard head was still on the wall, yowling impatiently for snausages.

Absolutely horrifying.

Chiron wasn't at the head table, nor was he in the adjacent meeting room, with its ping pong table and snacks. Annabeth looked through every room, and she even scoured the undersides of the sofas. Despite looking through everywhere, Annabeth couldn't find a trace of Chiron, even though he was suppose to be here, just after lunch time to work on his paperwork.

He must be dealing with some other campers out there, Annabeth concluded. She sat on the table, and took a good look around. Through the open windows, she could hear other campers in the distance, their voices raising and falling. Like a soft undertone, she could also hear the distant clashes of bronze and steel, from either the arena or from the forge of the Hephaestus cabins.

Nope. Still the same.

She began to wonder again, her mind floating off, thinking about the Gods as she waited impatiently for Chiron to arrive. What were they planning? Why were they trusting Percy into mortal business? What were they trying to achieve?

It doesn't make much sense, sending a demigod to interlude mortals. Why didn't they reinforce the mist instead? They know very well what happens with demigods and mortals, crazy things were drawn to demigods like magnets, and that went further more if you are the child of a Big Three.

She sat there, her mind racing to a dead end. As with everyone, their brains will occasionally smack dead to a blank wall, like a computer overheating. She recognized the symptoms, all the twitchy agitated movements, frantic brain activities and the total inability to think.

She forced herself to calm down, closing her eyes and attempted to picture a white open field. She screwed her eyes together, focusing on the color behind her eyelids.

Her efforts proved useless as figures in orange and purple danced across an imaginary grass field screaming for blood, in her mind. She willed the figures to go away, and they did, fading away like a mirage, but that led to a new problem. As the last of the sword waving campers in her mind disappeared, a ridiculous memory of Buford the Table emerged from a newly existent imaginary bunker nine, cranking about in Hedge's voice, "PUT SOME CLOTHES ON!"

If her day dreams were already this chaotic, it was a wonder that she could sleep at all.

She was suddenly interrupted by a clattering of hooves, growing louder and louder. She stood up from where she was sitting, her ears tingling as the hooves steps approached. The door to the Big House opened with a wham, revealing Chiron in all his _equine _glory and a surprised expression plastered to his face. He entered the building, his tail swishing franticly, saying, "Afternoon, Annabeth," before heading off into his small office at the back.

Annabeth swiveled to make way as Chiron hurried into the room, surprised in her own term too. She followed Chiron into his room, leaning on the door frame and asked, "Chiron? What s the hurry?"

Chiron looked up from where he was stuffing a bag full of important looking documents. He got gigantic bags under his eyes, his shoulders slumped, and once Annabeth think of it, he had been worn out for the past few days, not as powerful as he was normally. This "Plan" of the Gods must be getting on him.

Her suspicion was proven right when he rubbed his face and answered, "Sorry, my Child. I had been... preoccupied lately, and I apologize for my rude behavior. I have to attend an Olympic meeting of a certain importance and I'm afraid that I'm late."

Annabeth picked up a piece of document that was lying on the table and gave it a quick look through. After that, she dropped it back onto the table and asked, "Whats all this? Why do we have mortal documents in here? Whats SHIELD?"

Chiron picked up the piece of paper Annabeth dropped and stuffed it in his bag, answering, "SHIELD stands for Strategic Hazard Intervention Espionage Logistics Directorate. Its a mortal agency concerning about the well being of their world."

"What do we have to do with it?" Annabeth questioned, "Why are we even thinking about them? Don't the gods have a "leave puny mortals to their business" thing going on for the past three millennium? I hate being kept in the dark, you know."

"Its about Percy, Annabeth," Chiron said, "The Mist had failed to conceal his tracks, and as a result SHIELD was called in to... handle him."

"Handle?" Annabeth had a feeling she wouldn't like what Chiron had to say.

"Detain, questions or kill," Chiron answered dryly, "Other than that, it seemed that these mortals have a surprisingly high tolerance for abnormal peoples. Their team, as you know, consisted of Tony Stark the mortal genius (at which Annabeth raised both of her eyebrows), Steve Rodgers the biologically-enchanced super soldier from the fourties, an Alien proclaiming to be a god (at which Annabeth's eyebrows went even higher), Bruce Banner the scientist that can turn into a green colossus (Annabeth's haw dropped open) and of course their friends — to super agents."

After a while, Annabeth choked out, "you're actually serious about this, aren't you?"

"Yes," Chiron said simply, "Now do excuse me, my child. I would rather not be on the receiving end of Zeus's thunder bolts." He picked up his bags, grabbed his bows and quivers which were hanging on the wall. Annabeth stepped aside to make way for Chiron to leave the cabin. As he trotted out the front door, he looked back once and said, "When I'm gone, you are the acting leader of the camp. And for your sake, Annabeth, try to keep out of this. Even I do not know what the Gods are up too, that knowledge only resides in that immortal brain of your mother's and Zeus."

"Wait!" Annabeth ran outside to catch Chiron, but when she stepped out of the build, Chiron was already gone.

* * *

><p><strong>HELLOOOO<strong>

**SURPRISE! THIS STORY IS _NOT _DEAD!**

**SO, MY EXAMS FINALLY ENDED, AND YAY! FOR THREE WEEKS AND TWO DAYS I HADN'T UPDATED, AND DURING THESE DAYS I RECEIVE A LARGE AMOUNT OF DEATH THREATS ABOUT NOT UPDATING. I'M NOT SURE SHOULD I BE FREAKED OUT OR FLATTERED.**

**SO, THERE GOES A NEW CHAPTER! HOPEFULLY, NOW THAT THE EXAMS WERE DONE, I CAN GET BACK ON SCHEDULE. I KNOW THIS CHAPTER WASN'T EXITING AT ALL, BUT IT WAS SOMEWHAT ESSENTIAL TO WHAT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN NEXT.**

**AS AGAIN, PLEASE REVIEW AND THANKS FOR READING!**


End file.
